SFM Guidelines

The “Pan-European Operational Level Guidelines for Sustainable Forest Management” endorsed at Lisbon Ministerial Conference in 1998 were further elaborated to translating international commitments to the level of forest management practices and planning. They are directly based on Resolutions H1 and H2, and follow the structure of the six pan-European criteria that were identified as the core elements of sustainable forest management. Guidelines for each Criterion is divided into the two parts: ‘Forest Management Planning’ and ‘Forest Management Practices’, focused on basic ecological, economical and social requirements for sustainable forest management.

These guidelines comprise a common framework of recommendations to be applied at the field level that can complement national and/or regional instruments for SFM. Their implementation would improve communication, stakeholders’ participation, awareness raising and good practices at the practical level, contributing to sustainable forest management.

FOREST EUROPE has also developed, in cooperation with the Environment for Europe/Pan European Biological and Lanscape Diversity Strategy, the “Pan-European Guidelines for Afforestation and Reforestation” with a special focus on the provisions of the UNFCCC. The Guidelines, agreed in 2008, recognise the role of sustainable forest management in the mitigation of climate change . They form a set of recommendations for voluntary use by national authorities and stakeholders relevant to implement economically viable, environmentally sound and socially equitable afforestation and reforestation programmes and projects.