ITTO promotes use of criteria and indicators in Trinidad and Tobago
4 March 2024
Workshop participants during field exercise on application of the ITTO criteria and indicators for sustainable tropical forest management in Victoria/Mayaro Forest Reserve, Catshill Forest District. Photo: Forestry Division, Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries, Trinidad and Tobago
4 March 2024: Nearly 30 participants attended an ITTO-sponsored national training workshop on criteria and indicators for sustainable tropical forest management (C&I), held last week in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. The aim was to provide forest managers with insights into the C&I to assist in monitoring, assessing and reporting on forests and ensuring their sustainable management.
C&I list the main factors influencing forests (“criteria”) and propose indicators for assessing the extent to which management is consistent with sustainability.
ITTO pioneered the development of C&I in the early 1990s and has been a leader in promoting their use for monitoring and reporting on forests throughout the tropics. The Organization has now convened C&I workshops in 32 of its 37 producer countries; due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors, however, this was the first such workshop since the revised ITTO C&I were approved in 2016. The workshop was hosted by the Forestry Division of Trinidad and Tobago’s Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries on 27 February–1 March 2024.
Issues discussed at the workshop included monitoring, assessing and reporting on forests using the ITTO C&I; country reporting capabilities; field-level implementation; and
developments in international forestry and C&I processes.
“This workshop is an example of the kind of assistance that producer member countries receive from ITTO to build their capacities for sustainable forest management,” said ITTO Executive Director Sheam Satkuru.
“I expect that the workshop and follow-up support from ITTO will better equip forest authorities in Trinidad and Tobago to monitor, assess and report on their forest resources, restore degraded forest ecosystems, develop policy frameworks for sustainable forest management, and improve the socioeconomic contributions of forest to sustainable development,” she said.
Trinidad and Tobago is a founding member of ITTO, having joined the Organization shortly after its establishment in the late 1980s.
The most recent edition of ITTO Criteria and Indicators for the Sustainable Management of Tropical Forests (ITTO Policy Series No. 21) is available at www.itto.int/policy_papers/.
Workshop's report and presentations are available for donwload below.
Related SDGs
Sustainably managed tropical forests can be cornerstones of efforts to combat climate change and develop a more circular economy. Well-managed tropical forests act as a vast carbon sink, and sustainably produced tropical wood can be used as a renewable, low-carbon substitute for carbon-intensive materials. Criteria and indicators are tools for defining, assessing and monitoring progress towards sustainable forest management.
Criteria and indicators list the main factors that influence the health and productivity of a forest (“criteria”) and propose indicators that, if measured over time, will help managers assess the extent to which management is consistent with forest sustainability and the wellbeing of forest-dependent communities.
A fundamental aim of ITTO’s work is to raise capacity for sustainable forest management in the tropics across a wide spectrum of stakeholders, including forest communities, smallholders, small and medium-sized forest enterprises, governments, non-governmental organizations and the private sector. The training workshop conducted in Trinidad and Tobago is an example of the Organization’s commitment to sustainable forest management.