The National forest Act No 84 of 1998 provides that the Minister may develop a set of Principles, Criteria Indicators and Standards against which it could be measured whether or not the country’s forest are managed on a sustainable basis

Following a three-year development and testing process, involving a broad range of stakeholders, a set of Principles, Criteria, Indicators (PCIs) is now formulated and implementation has begun. The process was initiated by the Government Department of Water Affairs and Forestry to promote sustainable management of South Africa ’s forests. The Committee for Sustainable Forest Management (CSFM) - a permanent sub-committee of the National Forests Advisory Council (NFAC) - and the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF), are required by the National Forests Act (1998) to drive this process. The process followed three stages:

The CSFM drafted a set of national Principles and Criteria, based on national policies and international obligations, which were then broadcast for public comment. A multidisciplinary team of local and international specialists was appointed to review the criteria and develop indicators and measures pertaining to sustainable management of timber plantations and forests. These indicators and standards were also circulated for public comment, as stakeholder involvement was crucial from the outset. The process consisted of two parallel, but integrally linked streams. One was technical, developing and refining the criteria, indicators and standards. The other was a consultative process, whereby stakeholder input was fed into the technical process, contributing to the development and refinement of criteria, indicators and standards.

Once the PCI & S had been drafted by a range of specialists and approved by the CSFM, a round of comprehensive field-testings was launched. Stakeholders were consulted and the indicators and standards validated at a national, provincial and forest management unit level (FMU). In the testing process, the CI & S were measured against whether they were practical, understandable and relatively easy and inexpensive to apply. Any changes effected as a result of testing require the recommendation of the CSFM. The participatory testing process, involving a wide range of forestry stakeholders, resulted in modifications to the CI & S. Many of the changes resulted in more practical CI & S, making the measures easier to implement on the ground; or were of a grammatical nature, rendering the CI & S more user friendly and easier to understand.

Following the extensive testing process, the CFSM recommended the criteria and indicators for publication as regulations. In future it will be mandatory for the forestry sector to report against these criteria and indicators. Furthermore, criteria and indicators will be systematically applied in state managed natural forests and plantations where forest managers will be trained to use PCI & S for management planning, for reporting on the state of their forests and for auditing (local level PCI & S). They will also be used for creating a framework for policy develop?ent and review (national level PCI & S).