ORIGIN OF RESOLUTION:
NASF Sustainable Forestry Implementation Committee

ISSUE OF CONCERN:
Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management

BACKGROUND:
Three NASF committees (Emerging Issues, Forest Health and Resource Management) concluded in 1997 that that the internationally agreed upon criteria and indicators (C&I) to define and implement sustainable forest management (SFM) were a valuable vehicle to establish a clearer vision for the management of the nation’s public and private forest lands.

In 1997, the NASF body supported formally by resolution that:

1)      NASF and the USDA Forest Service jointly articulate a policy of sustainable forest management to guide the stewardship of all the nation’s forests; and

2)      NASF endorse the seven criteria established by the Montreal Process as a framework for integrating and measuring sustainable forest management. 

USFS leadership, combined with continuing interest in SFM, both domestically and internationally, has resulted in the creation of a multi-stakeholder Roundtable on Sustainable Forests in 1998 and the successful 2003 United States National Report on Sustainable Forests.  In addition, member states and regional bodies of NASF have also used C&I to establish policies and clearer vision for sustainable forest management. 

RESOLUTION:
The National Association of State Foresters:

1)      continues to support a policy of sustainable forest management to guide the stewardship of all the nation’s forests and believes that the application of Montreal Process C&I provides a framework to assure interagency cooperation and better efficiencies for data gathering and consistent national reporting that benefit forests of all ownerships within the United States; 

2)      recommends that within the USDA Forest Service, cross-deputy coordination is essential to ensure that the data collection and reporting activities are compatible with the Montreal Process C&I; and believes that the USDA Forest Service’s Resource Planning Act, Forest Inventory Analysis and Forest Health Monitoring programs, as well as other USDA programs (e.g., Natural Resources Conservation Service) are critical and compatible components for evaluating sustainable forest management of the nation’s forests; and

3)      requests the Chief of the USDA Forest Service to renew the Memorandum of Understanding among Federal Agencies Responsible for Data Related to the Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management in the United States as soon as possible.

Copies of this resolution will be sent to the Secretary of Agriculture, Chief of the Forest Service, Deputies for Research, State and Private, Planning, and International Forestry, and participants of the Roundtable on Sustainable Forests.

NASF ACTION:

( X ) Approved

                                                DATE OF ACTION:
October 5, 2005