9.01.05 - Research and development of indicators for sustainable forest management

UNIT NOTICEBOARD

2022-02-15

Special Issue "Sustainable Forest Management Criteria and Indicators"

Initiated by WP member Dr. Kathleen A. McGinley together with Prof. Fred Cubbage; in the MDPI Journal Forests, https://www.mdpi.com/journal/forests/special_issues/Criteria_Indicators.

IUFRO WP members have contributed to the following papers:

Lier, M.; Khl, M.; Korhonen, K.T.; Linser, S.; Prins, K.; Talarczyk, A. The New EU Forest Strategy for 2030: A New Understanding of Sustainable Forest Management?  Forests  2022, 13, 245. https://doi.org/10.3390/f13020245

Linser, S.; Wolfslehner, B. National Implementation of the Forest Europe Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management.  Forests  2022, 13, 191. https://doi.org/10.3390/f13020191

Riitters, K.; Robertson, G. The United States Implementation of the Montral Process Indicator of Forest Fragmentation.  Forests  2021, 12, 727. https://doi.org/10.3390/f12060727

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Coordinator:

Stefanie Linser, Austria

Deputies:

Mostafa Jafari, Iran

Tim Payn, New Zealand

Working Party Members

List of Working Party members: PDF


About Unit

The Working Party will specifically focus on analyzing the development of indicators and indicator sets as well as studying changing requirements for indicators for sustainable forest management. In addition, the Working Party aims at analyzing methodologies for developing and reviewing indicators and indicator sets as well as reviewing scientific options and making policy relevant recommendations for the further advancement of existing C&I for SFM processes, such as FOREST EUROPE, the Montreal Process, the Tehran Process for Low Forest Cover Countries etc. and through its research support related international efforts, such as those by UNFF, FAO, UNECE, EU, Eurostat and EEA.


State of Knowledge

In the light of major global problems and/or emerging challenges for sustainable forest management such as climate change, the provision of renewable energy, the loss of species and biodiversity, the further dispersal of invasive species that threaten several national ecosystems, the identification of criteria and indicators to generate knowledge about the status quo and measure changes becomes more and more important. Currently, a number of countries, international organizations and forest related processes plan to develop and/or revise indicators as well as review their indicator sets. In this respect activities for example in France, Austria, and Sweden etc. but also in the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), the Forest Europe process and the European Union at large can be mentioned.

Research on indicator development has advanced well, but so far no research group that continuously meets and systematically works together on advancing science existed. Consequently, this newly established Working Party involves both natural and social scientists as indicators are developed on the boundaries between natural and social science and are therefore cross-disciplinary objects.

As such, the Working Party is expected to not only contribute to the themes of the IUFRO Strategy 2015-2019, but for the first time also aims at successfully engaging a group of interested researchers to coordinate their indicator related research efforts.