Implementation of criteria for sustainable forest management

Resolution H1 of the Second Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe defined sustainable forest management. Resolution L2 of the third conference in Lisbon adopted the Pan-European operational level guidelines for sustainable forest management. These guidelines are designed for sub-national applications at a practical level. They should be applied in the context of, and in full respect to, national and/or regional instruments and actions. They are directly based on the resolutions H1 and H2 and they follow the structure of the six pan-European criteria that were identified as the core elements of sustainable forest management. The paper implements the six criteria by proposing and developing for each criteria a number of key issues that should be kept in mind for the realization of sustainable forestry at the field level. Altogether, 39 items are presented, such as forest maintenance, profitability, exploitation techniques, enhancement of biodiversity, native tree species, dead wood and old trees, participation, etc. The major problem remains the assessment of sustainable forest management. There is a lack of knowledge. Sustainable forest management requires that no big shortcomings on a large area occur for each of the criteria. Sustainable forest management is a process of continuous improvement.