Page 60 - 4. Pre-Course Reading-Training on Forestry Audit 2019

Auditing Forests: Guidance for Supreme Audit Institutions

1.2 National Forest Inventory (NFI)

A National Forest Inventory should be carried out regularly to collect data on the current status of national forest resources and for
PRINCIPLE 4 monitoring any changes to that status. Without proper data management and timely updates to a forest inventory on national level,
monitoring at the local level can quickly become relatively expensive and not representative to assess sustainability of country’s forestry.
POSSIBLE CRITERIA:
4.1 A legal/regulatory framework allowing for collecting and maintaining information about forest area, growing stocks, and stand descriptions.
4.2 Area of country’s forest and other wooded land during certain period (for example 5, 10, 20 etc. years) is stable or changes in area are reasonable.
If appropriate, area should be classified according to forest and vegetation type, ownership structure, age structure, origin of forest etc.

4.3 Total volume of the growing stock, mean volume of the growing stock and age structure/diameter distribution on forest land during certain
period (for example 5, 10, 20 etc. years) are stable or any changes are reasonable. If appropriate, forest land should be classified according
to forest and vegetation type, site classes, ownership structure, and origin of forest etc.
4.4 There are flexible provisions for inventories to be broadened to include information not previously covered, if and when needed.

1.3 Permanent forest estate
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Certain categories of land, whether public or private, need to be kept under permanent forest cover to secure their optimal
contribution to national development.
PRINCIPLE 5
The different categories of land to be kept under permanent forest are: land to be protected; land for nature conservation;
land for production of timber and other forest products; and land intended to fulfill combinations of these objectives.

POSSIBLE CRITERIA:
5.1 The various categories of the Permanent Forest Estate are identified, surveyed and their boundaries marked in consultation with surrounding
populations, taking into account their present and future needs for agriculture and customary use.
5.2 Total carbon storage in forest stands and in soil is increasing or stable, compared to a previous time (for example 5, 10, 20 etc. years ago).
The methods of measurement are understandable and acceptable at the international level.

5.3 Land destined for conversion to other uses (agriculture, mines, etc.) and any land for which the final use is uncertain, should be kept
under managed forest until the need for clearing arises.

1.4 Protection of biological diversity

Forest management shall conserve biological diversity, unique and fragile ecosystems and landscapes, and by so doing, maintain
PRINCIPLE 6 the ecological functions and the integrity of the forest. Management activities in high conservation value forests shall maintain or
enhance the attributes which define such forests.
POSSIBLE CRITERIA:
6.1 A national agency or an institutional framework maintains awareness of the need to establish different types of protected areas
(IUCN categories I-VI) to maintain biological diversity and ecosystem stability.

6.2 A legal/regulatory framework providing for legal instruments to protect representative, rare, or vulnerable forest ecosystems
and threatened species.
6.3 There are implemented procedures to identify high conservation value forests and endangered, rare, and threatened forest types.
6.4 There are implemented procedures to identify and protect endangered, rare and threatened species of forest-dependent flora and fauna.
6.5 A legal/regulatory framework describes management measures and procedures for protecting and monitoring biodiversity in production forests.

6.6 Special inventories showing the presence of an established network of protected areas, and that the management of these areas enables the
maintenance or restoration of a favorable conservation status of natural forest habitat types and the species’ habitats. If not all forest types are
represented appropriately in protected areas, a national agency or an institutional framework has an action plan to improve the situation.
6.7 A legal/regulatory framework describes measures for conservation of genetic variation within commercial, endangered, rare, and threatened
species of forest flora and fauna.