Reporting on Forests and Sustainable Forest Management in the Caucasus and Central Asia – Focus on Criteria and Indicators provides an overview of the status and developments in reporting on forests and sustainable forest management in the Caucasus and Central Asia. This reporting involves looking at forests in the context of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which recognizes the multiple roles forests play in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Criteria and indicators (C&I) provide a framework for comprehensive forest reporting, which defines, guides, monitors and assess progress toward sustainable forest management. A flexible nature of C&I helps to develop systems adjusted to the capacities, needs, and conditions, and can be applied at the global, regional, international, national, subnational, and even forest management unit levels. C&I helps our understanding and informs discussions about sustainable forest management and is a basis for informed decision-making, establishing national forest policy and facilitating international reporting.

This publication provides information about the processes and results of national efforts in building C&I sets in five countries of the region (Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan). Furthermore, the study shares best practices in developing and using C&I for SFM. The study was drafted as part of the project “Accountability Systems for Sustainable Forest Management in the Caucasus and Central Asia” implemented by the Joint UNECE/FAO Forestry and Timber Section and funded through the United Nations Development Account (UNDA).