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This indicator measures progress towards Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) through five sub indicators.

“Sustainable forest management” (SFM) is a central concept for Goal 15 and target 15.1 as well as for target 15.2. This indicator is composed of five sub-indicators that measure progress towards all dimensions of sustainable forest management. The environmental values of forests are covered by three sub-indicators focused on the extension of forest area, biomass within the forest area and protection and maintenance of biological diversity, and of natural and associated cultural resources. Social and economic values of forests are reconciled with environmental values through sustainable management plans. The sub-indicator provides further qualification to the management of forest areas, by assessing areas which are independently verified for compliance with a set of national or international standards.

The sub-indicators are:

• Forest area annual net change rate; 
• Above-ground biomass stock in forest; 
• Proportion of forest area located within legally established protect areas; 
• Proportion of forest area under a long-term forest management plan; 
• Forest area under an independently verified forest management certification scheme. 

A dashboard is used to assess progress related to the five sub-indicators. The adoption of the dashboard approach aims at ensuring consideration of all dimensions of sustainable forest management and provides for clear view of areas where progress has been achieved.

Forest Department

Forest Department

Annual

Percentage (%)

The definition of SFM by the UN General Assembly contains several key aspects, notably that sustainable forest management is a concept which varies over time and between countries, whose circumstances – ecological, social and economic – vary widely, but that it should always address a wide range of forest values, including economic, social and environmental values, and take intergenerational equity into account. Clearly a simple measure of forest area is insufficient to monitor sustainable forest management as a whole.

The significance of the five sub-indicators can be briefly explained as follows:

1. Trends in forest area are crucial for monitoring SFM. The first sub-indicator focuses on both the direction of change (whether there is a loss or gain in forest area) and how the change rate is changing over time; the latter is important in order to capture progress among countries that are losing forest area but have managed to reduce the rate of annual forest area loss.
2. Changes in the above-ground biomass stock in forest indicate the balance between gains in biomass stock due to forest growth and losses due to wood removals, natural losses, fire, wind, pests and diseases. At country level and over a longer period, sustainable forest management would imply a stable or increasing biomass stock per hectare, while a long-term reduction of biomass stock per hectare would imply either unsustainable management of the forests and degradation or unexpected major losses due to fire, wind, pests or diseases.
3. The change in forest area within legally protected areas is a proxy for trends in conservation of forest biodiversity as well as cultural and spiritual values of forests and thus a clear indication of the political will to protect and conserve forests. This indicator is related to the CBD Aichi Target 11 which calls for each country to conserve at least 17 per cent of terrestrial and inland water areas.
4. The fourth sub-indicator looks at the forest area that is under a long-term forest management plan. The existence of a documented forest management plan is the basis for long term and sustainable management of the forest resources for a variety of management objectives such as for wood and non-wood forest products, protection of soil and water, biodiversity conservation, social and cultural use, and a combination of two or several of these. An increasing area under forest management plan is therefore an indicator of progress towards sustainable forest management.
5. The fifth sub-indicator is the forest area that is certified by an independently verified forest management certification scheme. Such certification schemes apply standards that generally are higher than those established by the countries’ own normative frameworks, and compliance is verified by an independent and accredited certifier. An increase in certified forest area therefore provides an additional indication of progress towards sustainable forest management. It should however be noted that there are significant areas of sustainably managed forest which are not certified, either because their owners have chosen not to seek certification (which is voluntary and market-based) or because no credible or affordable certification scheme is in place for that area.

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National data on forest area, biomass stock, forest area within protected areas, and forest area under management plan are reported directly by countries to FAO for pre-established reference years. Based on the country reported data, FAO then makes country-level estimates of the forest area net change rate using the compound interest formula. The proportion of forest area within protected area and under management plan is calculated using the reported areas and the official FAOSTAT land area for reference year 2015. Data on forest area under an independently verified forest management certification scheme are reported to FAO by the head offices of respective forest certification scheme, who are jointly adjusting the figures to remove any double accounting.

The indicator can be used by the Forest Department to help in monitoring sustainable forest management.

The five sub-indicators chosen to illustrate progress towards sustainable forest management do not fully cover all aspects of sustainable forest management.

All the metadata shown in this document was gathered from United Nation Statistics Division. The metadata was extracted from https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/.