Selected Past Outreach Activities

COMPANION ROUNDTABLES

Find out more companion roundtables by clicking on the links below...

        The Roundtable for Sustainable Forests is an inclusive partnership of public and private organizations and individuals, promoting the national goal of sustainable forests through implementation of a set of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management that will lead to increased understanding and better decision making. For more specific information on their working groups, go to the RSF website. For information on the FGDC work click on Sustainable Forest Data Working Group or the Vegetation Subcommittee.

        The mission of the Sustainable Minerals Roundtable is to support the nation's commitment to sustainable development. The Roundtable will develop indicators of sustainability, based on social, economic, and environmental factors, to provide a means for assessing the status and trends of minerals/materials and energy systems.


RSF First Approximation Report (Report of the United States on the Criteria and Indicators for the Sustainable Management of Temperate and Boreal Forests June 1997).  The twelve member countries of the Montreal Process were requested to produce individual first approximation reports, i.e., national reports on the conditions of the forests in each nation. A priority of the Roundtable is to improve the United States' ability to assess sustainable forest management.

On October 16, 2000 eight federal agencies signed an historic Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to cooperate in obtaining, managing and reporting data concerning criteria and indicators (C&I) for the conservation and management of temperate and boreal forests. Additional agencies will likely join the agreement in the near and long term. The MOU provides a common interagency forum to resolve issues integral to collecting, monitoring, analyzing, reporting, and making data related to the Roundtables on Sustainable Forests C&I available on an ongoing basis. Most importantly, the MOU provides a process for helping the federal agencies develop the first national report by 2003 on the Nation's progress towards sustainable forest management. Output from the Sustainable Rangelands Roundtable will provide the basis for a parallel 2003 report on rangeland sustainability. This report will be a first approximation of the C&I for the sustainable management of U.S. rangelands. Like the 2003 national report on sustainable forests, the 2003 first approximation report on C&I for rangeland management is expected to include a chapter detailing information about each indicator, including geographic scope, data availability, data interpretation, and inter-relationships among indicators.


RELATED EFFORTS

A country led initiative in support of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) called the International Expert Meeting on Monitoring, Assessment, and Reporting on the Progress Towards Sustainable Forest Management met 5-8 November, 2001 in Yokohama, Japan. This site links to the full text of almost all of the papers presented there. It includes updates from Malasia, the European community, Finland, NGO efforts, Japan, Australia, the Amazon Cooperative Treaty, Brazil, Indonesia, and the US on their progress towards monitoring, assessing, and reporting on the 7 Criteria and 67 Indicators of the Montreal Protocol. Of interest to those wanting an update on global efforts.

Interagency Working Group on Sustainable Development Indicators
In June 1993, President Clinton established the President’s Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD) with a mandate to develop recommendations on steps the United States could take to realize sustainable development. The Council presented its initial findings to the President in March 1996 in the document Sustainable America: a New Consensus for Prosperity, Opportunity, and a Healthy Environment for the Future. In this report, the Council noted the importance of monitoring the Nation’s progress toward national sustainability goals. It recommended that the Federal Government intensify its efforts to develop national indicators of progress toward sustainable development in collaboration with nongovernmental organizations and the private sector. In response to this recommendation, the Administration established the U.S. Interagency Working Group on Sustainable Development Indicators (SDI Group) in 1996.

The H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment
The Heinz Center indicators focus on 17 key aspects of grassland/shrubland condition, covering system dimensions, human use, biological resources, and chemical and physical conditions. They address the state of the system, so as to move toward a common understanding and language about basic aspects of system condiditon. Stressors and socio-economic, legal, and financial issues were left out by design. It addresses the first six criteria of the Montreal criteria that is being used by the Roundtable for Sustainable Forests (RSF), with added emphasis on non-native species.

The international community is working on the linkages between national level and sub-national level indicators. The Montreal Process countries are also publishing a number of technical materials and have established a web site to assist in the implementation of the C&I.

The Santiago Declaration was agreed to by the governments of Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, Paraguay, Argentina, and the United States, which are participating in the Working Group on Criteria and Indicators (C&I) for the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Temperate and Boreal Forests known as the "Montreal Process", an important step in implementing the Statement of Forest Principles and Agenda 21, adopted by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992.

The Montréal Process is the Working Group on Criteria and Indicators for the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Temperate and Boreal Forests. It was formed in Geneva, Switzerland, in June 1994 to develop and implement internationally agreed criteria and indicators for the conservation and sustainable management of temperate and boreal forests.