Page 62 - 4. Pre-Course Reading-Training on Forestry Audit 2019

Auditing Forests: Guidance for Supreme Audit Institutions

2. FOREST MANAGEMENT

2.1 Planning

A management plan – appropriate to the scale and intensity of the operations – shall be written, implemented, and kept up to date.
PRINCIPLE 10
The long term objectives of management, and the means of achieving them, shall be clearly stated.
POSSIBLE CRITERIA:
10.1 All administrative levels have appropriate capacity for planning sustainable forest management, in consideration of all thematic elements
of sustainable forestry.

10.2 A legal/regulatory framework gives forest owners and managers with the power to assemble or to order forest management plans.
10.3 All forests (despite ownership) are managed according to a management plan. If not, then the percentage of forest area managed according
to a management plan is increasing compared to the previous situation (for example 5, 10, 20 etc. years).
10.4 Management objectives are set rationally for each management unit. Objectives should be flexible enough to allow the forest manager to adapt to
present and future variations in physical, biological, and socio-economic circumstances - keeping in mind the overall objectives of sustainability.
62 10.5 If appropriate, the size of each production forest management unit should preferably be a function of felling cycle, the average harvested volume
per ha and annual timber outturn target of the operating agency (state forest enterprises, concessionaire, etc.)
10.6 A legal/regulatory framework regulates public participation in forest management planning, decision-making, data collection, monitoring and assessment.

a) Forest Inventory
The forests earmarked for timber production should be the subject of a detailed inventory to allow planning of forest management and
PRINCIPLE 11
timber harvesting operations. The question of type and quantity of data to be gathered should be the subject to cost-benefit analysis.
POSSIBLE CRITERIA:
11.1 A legal/regulatory framework describes the requirements for forest mapping and the methods of forest inventory.
11.2 Sufficient forest inventories exist for keeping track of both the current and potential quantities of commercial tree species
for any future timber production.

11.3 If appropriate, representative series of permanent sample plots are established.
11.4 A national agency or institutional framework with the capacity to supervise the existence and quality of forest inventories.

b) Choice of silvicultural concept

The choice of silvicultural concept should be aimed at sustained yield at minimum cost, enabling harvesting now and in the future,
PRINCIPLE 12
while respecting recognized other forest management objectives.
POSSIBLE CRITERIA:
12.1 The silvicultural guidelines for timber and non-wood forest products exist and are implemented
12.2 Information, which provides the basis for rational choice of silvicultural practices (inventories and measurements from growth and yield plots,
as well as data on market demand for various end uses of timber products), is gathered.
12.3 A progressive silvicultural system should be developed, one that allows for gradual improvements in practices as better information becomes
available. The harvesting intensity and the design of harvesting should be integral parts of the silvicultural concept.