The Montréal Process - Evolution of the Montréal Process

	Evolution of the Montréal Process
	Explanatory Brochure of the Montréal Process
	Santiago Declaration
	Criteria & Indicators

The 1992 Earth Summit, or United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), called upon all nations to ensure sustainable development, including the management of all types of forests. The summit produced a Statement of Forest Principles, conventions on biodiversity, climate change and desertification, and a plan of action for the 21^st century called Agenda 21, all of which have implications for forest management.

Following UNCED, Canada convened an International Seminar of Experts on Sustainable Development of Boreal and Temperate Forests. This seminar, held in Montréal in 1993 and sponsored by the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), focused specifically on criteria and indicators and how they can help define and measure progress towards sustainable development of forests. European countries decided to work as a region under the framework of the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe.

Subsequently, an initiative was launched among non-European temperate and boreal countries to develop and implement internationally agreed criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management. The Montréal Process began in June 1994, in Geneva, with the first meeting of the Working Group on Criteria and Indicators for the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Temperate and Boreal Forests. Several of the first meetings were held on the margins of other international forest policy meetings. Records of previous meetings are available at the Meetings and Reports page.