[Back to front page]

[List of Publications]

[Anual Report 96 :
Table of Contents]

What is Sustainable Forest Management?

Since the UNCED92 Rio conference on the environment, several important international initiatives have sought to identify standards (criteria and indicators) for sustainable forest management. These initiatives have moved the global community closer to a consensus on what constitutes sustainable forest management. However, research to develop criteria and indicators, or standards, by which to judge forest management is still needed.

CIFOR has tested criteria and indicators using inter-disciplinary teams of foresters, social scientists and ecologists with inputs from local stakeholders. The tests took place within operating forest management units in Germany, Indonesia, Côte d'Ivoire, Brazil, Austria and Cameroon. These tests revealed that two of the most contentious issues requiring further research are the social criteria and indicators, and the impacts of disturbance on genetic diversity.

Social Criteria and Indicators

Most reliable methods of assessing the social criteria and indicators are too time consuming and the quick ones are too "dirty". The project has attempted to develop and test relevant social science methods which are simple, quick and reliable. The methods were tested in areas familiar to CIFOR staff or collaborators so that results could be compared with knowledge from long-term research. Subsequent testing will be carried out in Cameroon and East Kalimantan initially.

Three priority issues for the social component were:

• Definition of relevant stakeholders in forest management;
• Inter-generational access to resources;
• Participation in forest management.

The social criteria and indicators developed were pre-tested in and around the Danau Sentarum Wildlife Reserve (DSWR) in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, and in Cameroon (near Kribi and Mbalmayo). In West Kalimantan, local people do not just "participate" in the management plans of others. In reality, day-to-day management is primarily in their hands, with timber companies or the state playing an ephemeral or supporting role.

The existence of a "conservation ethic" among local people is important in determining who counts in sustainable forest management. While not easily defined, there are observable differences in people's feelings of affinity for the forest (e.g., Borneo's indigenous Dayaks vis-à-vis transmigrant farmers from Java; the Amazon's long resident ribereiño's vs the settlers who come there from southern Brazil). Understanding the forest-culture link and being able to assess it easily is important in our attempt to define relevant stakeholders and perhaps to assess sustainability more generally.

The figure opposite presents some of our survey findings from women and men in Danau Sentarum about their perceptions of the forest and important related concepts. In assessing a "conservation ethic", we expected the "forest" to be particularly close to such concepts as "me", "good", "future" and "spirit". Instead, the comparatively great distances of "forest" from those concepts are intriguing, considering that these people reside in a sustainably managed forest area.

The similarities between men's and women's views on forest issues, in and around the Danau Sentarum Wildlife Reserve, are consistent with their easy communication and the comparatively egalitarian attitudes of these communities about gender. In Cameroon where sustainability profiles are quite different, we anticipate different results about the links between the people and the forest.

During 1997, CIFOR will test new methods in four areas of Cameroon in collaboration with: Avenir des Peuples des Forêts Tropicales and Comité Diocésain des Activités Socio-Caritatives near the Dja Reserve; IITA-Humid Forest Systems and Dr. John Mope Simo near Mbalmayo; Mt. Cameroon Project near Limbe; and Tropenbos Foundation near Kribi. In East Kalimantan partners include Mulawarman University, Kehati Foundation, Asia Forestry Network and the Ministry of Forestry's Center for Research and Development on Forests and Nature Conservation.

Impacts on Genetic diversity

Genetic variation is required for species to survive and reproduce in the array of conditions they face. Genetic conservation is also a necessary pre-condition for the future evolution and adaptability of local populations and of entire species. However, genetic variation is difficult to measure directly and hence its loss is easy to ignore ­ until it is too late. Genetic erosion can ultimately lead to species extinctions and ecosystem loss, and thus restrict development options.

The conservation of evolutionary processes is a necessary biological criterion by which the sustainability of forests can be judged. Genetic indicators of those processes can reflect the sustainability of the evolutionary processes. Four genetic indicators are necessary for sustainability (see table below).

To use these indicators effectively, a preliminary screening of susceptible species is necessary, followed by a risk assessment based on the indicators. This can identify species at risk under a given management system. Since no common standard exists, assessment must be made on reference populations as well as the affected populations . Sampling and analysis must ensure that temporal differences are detected and that factors, such as location, generation, age and density, are disaggregated.

A system of three levels of sustainability can be devised to indicate the potential damage to a species of a particular management action: levels of genetic variation may be so low that demographic recovery is unlikely; prospects for adaptation may be so poor that future adaptation is constrained; and migration may be so restricted that colonisation does not occur. If the mating system cannot regenerate genetic variation, then little can be done to sustain the system ­ a case of unconditional non-sustainability. On the other hand, if all indicators are that the system can renew itself regardless of future events, then little can be done to improve sustainability and an unconditional acceptability of risk may exist. However, if some of the indicators are at indeterminant levels, then a conditional acceptability could be declared and interventions warranted.

The use of standards (or criteria and indicators) to decide whether a forest management system is sustainable or not must take account of not only the silvicultural aspects of tree growing but also the social and biodiversity implications. Field assessment of these indicators as well as recognition of varying social environments in which actions take place require that those most closely affected by forests be involved in their management.

Ravindra Prabhu, Carol Pierce Colfer
& Timothy Boyle

 Modes of Utilisation   

INDICATORS

 Levels of genetic diversity are maintained

No directional change in genetic/genotypic frequencies

No changes
in the mating system

 Changing in gene migration

 x

 x

 x

x 

 x

 x

 x

 x

 x

 x

x

x

x

x

x

 x

 x

x

x

x