Changing realities: ecosystem approaches and sustainable forest management

Abstract

There is a perception within forestry circles that the Rio Summit spawned two parallel concepts for forest conservation and management. One has been that of Sustainable Forest Management, developing from classical forestry and pursued through the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) and organizations such as FAO and ITTO. The other has been that of the Ecosystem Approach, developed primarily within the framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). International fora on forests have discussed the two concepts and governments have committed to implementing them. Yet there is still a good deal of confusion about how the concepts relate to each other. This is more than just an esoteric problem of definitions. There is a risk that national agencies charged with implementing international commitments will get lost in pointless polemics.