25 years of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management: Why some intergovernmental C & I processes flourished while others faded

Abstract

The use of criteria and indicators (C & I) for data collection, monitoring, assessing and reporting on sustainable forest management (SFM) has been growing since the Earth Summit in 1992, supported by eleven intergovernmental, regional and international forest-related C & I processes. The initial effort led to varying levels of implementation across countries. Several processes never went much beyond the adoption of a first set of C & I while others have made substantial progress. In recent years, interest in C & I for SFM has again increased. In light of the Sustainable Development Goals and emerging global challenges the contribution of C & I to monitor, assess and report on forest conditions and trends is increasingly important. We compare and analyse the structure, activities and progress of the intergovernmental C & I processes. The work is based on document analysis and questionnaires sent to the secretariats of the processes and C & I experts. We found many similarities but also major differences in the structure and content of the C & I sets. The results provide a context for discussing and understanding why some of the C & I processes are successful in their work while others have stalled. Finally, we propose the required ingredients for success for the future activities of the forest-related intergovernmental C & I processes.