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The Montreal Process
One of the most important international developments for forest management since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 has been the development of the Montreal Process, international criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management.
Membership in the Montreal Process Working Group is voluntary and currently includes countries from both hemispheres, having a wide range in natural and social conditions. The member countries represent about 90 per cent of the world's temperate and boreal forests in the northern and southern hemispheres. This amounts to 60 per cent of all of the forests of the world. (Note: Europe's forests are not included - they are being addressed by the Helsinki or Pan-European Process)
Montreal Process Member Countries currently comprises of twelve countries on five continents: Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Russian Federation, United States of America, Uruguay. Observers from other countries and various international organisations also attend.
The group has developed a comprehensive set of seven criteria and 67 indicators at a national level for the conservation and sustainable management of temperate and boreal forests.
To date there have been eighteen Montreal Process meetings, the eighteenth meeting was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina in November 2007. The Liaison Office for the Montreal Process Working Group is located in Ottawa, Canada.
Information on previous meetings
Criteria and indicators
Definitions
Criteria: describe the broad forest values that society seeks to sustain.
Indicators: provide measures of change in these criteria over time.
The criteria and indicators provide a common understanding of what is meant by sustainable forest management. The seven international criteria for sustainable forest management, as agreed by the Montreal Process are:
- Biological diversity
- Productive capacity
- Ecosystem health and vitality
- Soil and water resources
- Global carbon cycles
- Socio-economic benefits, and
- Legal, institutional and economic frameworks
The first six criteria deal specifically with forest conditions, attributes or functions, and the values or benefits associated with the environmental and socioeconomic goods and services that forests provide. The seventh criterion relates to the overall policy framework of a country that can facilitate the conservation and sustainable management of forests.
The criteria and indicators are tools for assessing national trends in forest conditions and management, and provide a common framework for describing, monitoring and evaluating progress towards sustainability at the country level.
Application of the criteria and indicators will help to:
- provide an international reference for policy makers in the formulation of national policies
- improve the quality of information available to decision makers and the public
- better inform the forest policy debate at national and international levels, and
- provide an agreed framework for data collection and reporting that will provide a clearer picture of forest management performance and remove duplication in reporting standards.
Read more about the seven criteria's and 67 indicators.