Area of forest under sustainable management: certification
Sustainable forestry and forest conservation schemes have often been viewed as
not being compatible, as they are often trying to achieve different objectives.
For example forestry services are managing land for sustainable timber supply
and forest conservationists are managing land for ecosystems services and other
conservation values. One approach to combining these two objectives in
environmental sustainable management is the use of forest certification schemes.
A range of forest certification schemes exist throughout the world, such as the
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Canadian Standards Association (CSA),
Pan-European Forest Council (PEFC), Sustainable Forest Initiative (SFI),
Malaysian Tiber Certification Council (MTCC) and ISO 14001. These schemes are
seen as providing assurance to providers of certified products and purchasers of
forest products that they are promoting sustainable management as well as
conserving biodiversity. This indicator involves analysis of trends in area of
forest committed to certification schemes, as well as contribution of
certification schemes to conservation.
Area of forest under sustainable management: degradation and
deforestation
It is generally assumed that a forest under sustainable forest management should
experience no variation in the annual rates of change of the growing stock per
hectare. Any changes in the annual rates of change of the growing stock,
therefore, capture deviations that may result from degradation and
deforestation.
The Food and Agricultural
Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has been monitoring the world’s
forest at 5 to 10 year intervals since 1946. The
Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) is based on data that countries
provide to FAO in response to a common questionnaire. This indicator will
combine satellite observation data with information on growing stock (available
for over 150 countries) and additional information from FRA to capture
degradation and deforestation in forests.
Area of agricultural ecosystems under sustainable management
This indicator will provide an overview assessment of the status and trends with
respect to areas of agricultural ecosystems under sustainable management. Four
core indicators have been identified for this purpose, which will enable an
assessment of the status and trends of diverse agricultural ecosystems
worldwide. The four indicators are:
- Development and adoption of policies, strategies, and plans that support and
promote the sustainable use of agriculture
- Adoption of best agricultural practices and technologies by farmers and herders
- Status and trends of agricultural biodiversity and ecosystem services
- Status and trends in sustaining agricultural livelihoods
Data and information that has been collected for these four indicators will be
combined to form a composite index that reflects the interactions between
biophysical and human interactions in agricultural systems. The aim of this
composite indicator is to provide policy-makers with a simple and understandable
measure of progress towards sustainable agriculture and the 2010 target.
These indicators can be applied at various scales, from the farm and
agro-ecological system level, to the global level. Data for these indicators
comes at least in part from the World Agricultural Information Centre (WAICENT)
database, maintained by the Food and
Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Proportion of fish stocks in safe biological limits
This indicator is based on a combination of formal, national and regional-level
fish stock assessments, and analysis of
FAO fisheries statistics. It includes catch data on finfish, crustaceans,
and molluscs, which can be used as a proxy measure for stock assessment
information. The indicator has good spatial and species coverage, and catch
statistics should be available for all commercial fisheries.
The indicator has been published in FAO publications including the
State of the World's Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA), and the catch
statistics it is based on are also included in the
Marine Trophic Index and Ecological Footprint.
Status of species in trade
This indicator measures changes in the species threatened by international
trade, as listed in the
Appendices of the Convention
on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Trade data can be used
to identify trends in a variety of aspects of sustainable use, including
production rates of sustainable and non-sustainable commodities or species, the
source and quantity of specimens from specific areas, and trends in harvest
rates of species. For example, changes in the CITES Appendices can denote a
change in the perceived or actual threat posed by international trade, acting as
an indirect proxy for changes in threats to the survival of the species in
question.
Wild Commodities Index
This indicator will track how the status of wild populations of a selection of
highly used species has changed over the last two decades. The index will
include 100 to 200 common and endangered animals and plants, all of whom are
highly used and of economic and social importance, from different regions and of
a range of uses, including, food for human consumption, construction and
medicinal plants and animals. Data for this indicator will come from a wide
variety of sources, and are being collected in collaboration with the
IUCN Species Survival Commission (IUCN SSC),
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and
TRAFFIC, as well as a range and institutions and experts from around the
world, including
Wageningen University (the Netherlands). The Indicator is currently in the
early stages of its development, and is financially supported by the Shell
Research Foundation.
The
Ecological Footprint is a widely used indicator, which measures humanity’s
demand on the biosphere in terms of the area of biologically productive land and
sea required to provide the resources we use and to absorb our waste. It shows
whether human demands for resources and waste absorption are within the
biosphere's capacity to supply, or whether they exceed ecological limits.
The Ecological Footprint of 150 countries has been calculated for every year from
1961 to 2002, and the global Footprint is calculated by summing national results
or by using globally aggregated data. The Ecological Footprint is updated and
published biannually in the WWF Living Planet Report.
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