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Criteria and Indicators framework to measure the sustainability of forest resources in India and their contribution to SDGs and GFGs

XV World Forestry Congress, 2-6 May 2022

Year of publication 2022

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Pages 15 p.

Author Yadav, M., Dugaya, D.

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Article

Synopsis (short abstract) With the adoption of sustainable development as Agenda 21 at the Earth Summit (1992), the global community reaffirmed its commitment to sustainable development at the World Summit on Social Development in Copenhagen in 1995, the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002, and at Rio + 20 in 2012. The outcome at Rio+20 was documented as “The Future We Want" into a set of SDGs (Sustainable development Goals) also known as the Agenda 2030 (2012). The efforts were also made to integrate the sustainable development goals into sustainable management of the world’s forests at the United Nations Forum on Forest (UNFF). These efforts fructified into the UN General Assembly in 2017 adopting a set of six Global Forest Goals (GFGs) and 26 associated targets to be achieved by 2030. Considering the Criteria & Indicators as a potent tool, the country’s across the world committed themselves to realize these global goals through the adoption of criteria and indicators’ approach for the management of their forest resources. In this process eleven regional and international initiatives have emerged, one of these is Regional Initiative for Dry Forests in Asia (also known as Bhopal- India Process). India developed its national set of C&I into 8 criteria and 37 indicators. These were then adopted and integrated into its national forest planning process at Forest Management Unit (FMU) level through National Working Plan Code (NWPC) 2014. Following the adoption of NWPC, the country needs to create a system of national monitoring and evaluation. The proposed paper is an attempt to evolve a set of applicable indicators along-with baseline value for periodic assessment. A comparison of the observed values of the identified indicators against the baseline would help understand the change in the forestry conditions and provide a framework for interpretation, measuring, and monitoring the sustainability of forest resources and their contribution to achieving SDGs and GFGs. Keywords: Criteria and indicator, Bhopal-India Process, Sustainable Forest Management ID:3486849

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