Tenth Meeting of the Working Group on Criteria and Indicators for the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Temperate and Boreal Forests
Montreal Process

Moscow, Russian Federation
6-9 October 1998

1. The Working Group on Criteria and Indicators for the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Temperate and Boreal Forests (Montreal Process) held its tenth meeting in Moscow, Russian Federation on 6-9 October 1998. The Montreal Process includes Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Russian Federation, the United States of America and Uruguay, which together represent 60 per cent of the world's forests.

2. The meeting was opened by Mr. Valery Shubin, Chief of the Federal Forest Service of Russia, and elected the following co-chairs: Dr. Evgeny Kuzmichev (Russian Federation) and Mr. Jacques Carette (Canada).

3. Representatives of all 12 countries of the Montreal Process attended the meeting, as did representatives of the Pan-European (Helsinki) Process, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), representatives of some government departments of the Russian Federation (Ministry of Economic, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Natural Resources, State Committee on Ecology and Natural Conservation), Russian Academy of Science, Russian Academy of Agricultural Science, other intergovernmental organizations and non-government environmental organisations, including WWF-Russia, IUCN-Russia and Greenpeace-Russia, and a wide variety of Russian agencies and other interest groups. A list of participants is at Attachment A.

4. The meeting welcomed a presentation on current activities on criteria and indicators (C&I) by Austria on behalf of the Pan-European Process, in particular on the outcomes and follow-up of the Lisbon Ministerial Conference. The meeting also welcomed presentations by representatives of the ITTO and FAO, who provided information, respectively, on ITTO's work on criteria and indicators, activities of FAO and those carried out within the Tarapoto proposal for the Amazon and the Central American and Near East Processes. The representative of FAO also conveyed the regrets of the coordinator of the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF) Secretariat, and briefly outlined work of the IFF and the Interagency Task force on Forests (ITFF). The representative of UNEP also provided information on the Dry-Zone Africa Process. The meeting also welcomed presentations by Australia and China on the results of the informal workshop in Melbourne, Australia, which brought together representatives of Montreal Process and other countries who were attending the meeting on criteria and indicators sponsored by the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations (IUFRO) in August 1998.

5. The meeting received with appreciation presentations from distinguished Russian scientists, Federal Forest Service officials and NGOs. Comprehensive presentations were given on the conditions and management issues regarding Russia's vast forest lands, including reports on resource utilization and sustainable development, regional and protected areas, biodiversity conservation, fire protection and control, carbon credit and carbon sinks, forest education and forest science.

6. Montreal Process countries reported their progress on institutionalizing and implementing the criteria and indicators. These presentations demonstrated that all member countries are making important strides in building institutional support for criteria and indicators through a variety of means, including partnerships with public and private interests and among government agencies at the national and sub-national levels; interpretation and further elaboration of indicators to meet country-specific conditions; and application by innovative techniques to data collection and measurement approaches for indicators.

7. To highlight the innovative work being undertaken by Montreal Process countries to implement C&I and promote sustainable forest management, the Working Group agreed to prepare a report for presentation at the 8^th Session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development and the 12^th IUFRO Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in the year 2000. The framework for this report is provided at Attachment B.

8. The Working Group also agreed to prepare a Montreal Process report on data collected by countries against the Montreal Process indicators for publication in the year 2003. The specific content and format of this report should be decided at the 11^th meeting of the Montreal Process Working Group.

9. The meeting considered the draft Montreal Process brochure, AForests for the Future B Montreal Process Criteria and Indicators@. Following a detailed discussion, the group agreed in principle to final changes to the document and requested the Liaison Office to circulate the revised version by 15 November 1998 for a final two week comment period by members and, based on any final comments, to prepare the final version for publication. Montreal Process countries are requested to provide data for the forest area, timber production and employment graphs to the Liaison Office by 30 October 1998. The document is aimed to convey general information about the Montreal Process to a broad public audience. The brochure should be used also to promote the Montreal Process to relevant international organizations and interested financial institutions that could provide assistance with the implementation of criteria and indicators in Montreal Process countries.

10. Following a presentation by TAC chairman Dr. David Brand on the TAC report containing proposed definitions of technical terms and revised and expanded Explanatory Notes (i.e., rationales and measurement approaches) for the criteria and indicators, the Working Group agreed to publish a set of ATechnical Notes@ which would contain rationales, definitions and measurement approaches for the Montreal Process criteria and indicators. The publication would serve as a general guide to users and would be updated as required to reflect the latest scientific thinking on measurement approaches to indicators. The format of the publication was agreed as follows:

1. Introduction
2. Background
3. Rationales and measurement approaches
4. Appendix 1. Glossary
5. Appendix 2. Santiago Declaration and its annex on Criteria and Indicators
6. Appendix 3. Background information

The Liaison Office was requested to circulate the first draft of the Technical Notes by 30 October 1998. Members of the Working Group were asked to submit detailed comments on the Technical Notes to the Liaison Office no later than 31 December 1998.

11. The Montreal Process Working Group also agreed to publish a second printing of the Santiago Declaration and its Annex (first published in 1995) with a revised preface. The Liaison Office was requested to circulate a revised draft of the document for review by member countries by 30 October 1998.

12. To support future work of the Montreal Process, the Working Group requested the TAC to consider and prepare papers on the following issues for consideration by the Working Group at its 11^th meeting:

• possible application of the Montreal Process national level criteria and indicators to sub-national levels;
• the issue of scale regarding the collection and aggregation of data to the national level; and
• opportunities for further technical cooperation and information sharing among Montreal Process countries.

The terms of reference for this work of the TAC are provided at Attachment C.

13. The group heard with regret that Dr. David Brand, Australia, is stepping down from his position as first Convenor of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC). The meeting noted with appreciation the significant contribution to the Montreal Process made by Dr. Brand during his 2-year tenure as Convenor of the TAC. The Montreal Process countries also extended their thanks to the Governments of Australia and New South Wales for their support, and particularly to Ms Ulla Karjalainen for her assistance to the TAC during Dr. Brand's tenure. The meeting nominated by acclamation Mr. Robert Hendricks of the United States Forest Service to succeed Dr. Brand.

14. The Montreal Process countries reaffirmed that the procedure for countries to join the Montreal Process is a diplomatic one. An interested country should, by diplomatic channels, inform the Government of Chile that its government endorses the Santiago Declaration. Chile will inform Canada as the Liaison Office, which will inform the other Montreal Process countries.

15. The meeting welcomed the tentative offer by the USA to host the 11th meeting of the Montreal Process Working Group. The representative of the USA indicated that US would verify this offer in the coming weeks.

16. The Montreal Process countries recognised with appreciation the excellent support provided by Canada to the Working Group and welcomed the continued willingness of Canada to serve as the Liaison Office for the Montreal Process.

17. The meeting expressed its deep appreciation to the Government and people of the Russian Federation for their hospitality in hosting the Tenth Meeting of the Montreal Process Working Group.

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Attachment A

10^th Meeting of the Montreal Process Working Group
Moscow, Russian Federation
6B9 October 1998

List of Participants: Please see "Who is Involved : Montreal Process Contacts"

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Attachment B

Montreal Process Year 2000 Report

Guidelines

Tentative Title:

The Montreal Process: Progress and Innovation in Implementing Criteria and Indicators for the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Temperate and Boreal Forests

Purpose:

Highlight country accomplishments in capacity-building, data collection, institutional and regulatory policy development, reforestation, technical cooperation, etc., with respect to implementing C&I.

Content:

Series of country Avignettes@ describing experiences on or providing examples of progress/innovation in implementing C&I and related policy initiatives to promote sustainable forest management (SFM)

Countries may wish also to report on core data sets where they have been established.

Format will be narrative with illustrative material (i.e., graphs, charts, etc.) as needed. 5-7 pages each.

Length:

• Introduction/background: " 3 pages
• Strengths/value-added of Montreal Process " 3 pages
• Country vignettes (5-7 pages x 12) 60-84 pages
• Annex: the C&I " 7 pages
• Total length 75-97 pages

Audience:

Policy-makers, forest officials, general public, interest groups and stakeholders.

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Attachment C

Future Work by the Technical Advisory Committee Identified
by the 10^th Session of the Montreal Process Working Group

October 8, 1998

The Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) is requested:

1. to prepare a option paper on the possible application of Montreal Process national criteria and indicators at the sub-national level. This paper should explore:

• how forest lands with various management objectives at the sub-national level, contribute to the overall reporting of indicators at the national level;
• the basis for current country interpretations of what constitutes sub-national levels for the application of national C&I;
• how C&I can be used to assess conditions at the sub-national level;
• the effect of scale on assessment, data collection, forest planning, monitoring and related technical topics as it might affect the application of national C&I at the sub-national levels.

2. to prepare a discussion paper exploring the:

• scale issues regarding the collection and aggregation of data to the sub-national and national levels;
• the effect of scale on the interpretation of data, and;
• the implications of the periodicity of nationally collected date on sub-national application of C&I.

3. to explore opportunities and provide possible options for further technical cooperation and assistance, including scientific and technical information sharing, among Montreal Process countries through such means as:

• training, workshops
• scientific networks
• translation of technical and scientific documents
• use of electronic mail and internet
• demonstration projects for testing C&I
• technical collaborative opportunities.

The paper should also identify priorities by country if possible for future cooperation in the above areas.

The TAC is encouraged to limit the above papers to 5 pages in length.

The TAC is also asked to create the multi-lingual glossary of terms identified by the Working Group at the Ninth Working Group Meeting (English, French, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, Chinese and Russian). Existing sources of information will be built upon (eg. Aird 1994, IUFRO and FAO).

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