Convention on biological diversity

ANNEX II

Criteria for selection of vertebrate indicator species for forests in Canada

1. Species is dependent on forest habitats.

2. Species is responsive to forestry practices.

3. A range of body sizes/home range sizes should be represented.

4. A range of life history strategies should be represented.

4a. All trophic levels should be represented in the suite of species chosen.

4b. Year round residents should be given priority over migrants in northern forests.

4c. Habitat specialists and generalists should be included.

5. Biologically rare species should be selected, particularly if their rarity is habitat- related.

6. Species should inhabit a range of forest habitats and structural characteristics (e.g., upper, middle, and lower canopy).

7. Any known keystone species should be selected.
II. Methods Selection Criteria

1. The species must contribute to testing a valid hypothesis with respect to factors which might influence the species

2. A sampling protocol must be available.

3. Species should be distributed so that a statistically valid sampling is possible.

4. Sampling should be cost effective.

5. Whenever possible, a control area, where populations are determined by natural factors, should be used as part of the sampling design.

1. Nationally or regionally featured species.

2. Species with a low or diminishing habitat availability at the ecoregional scale.

3. Species should be ones for which a given jurisdiction bears a high level of conservation responsibility (or endemism) based on proportion of total range within the country.

4. Species is easily recognizable by the public and politicians.
Source: McLaren et al. (1998)

ANNEX III

Data management and science research agenda to understand and manage forest biodiversity

Natural disturbances

Current and past land use practices

Alien species

Climate change

Pollution

Habitat fragmentation
(b) Develop methods to compile an inventory and to monitor biological diversity
Mapping of biodiversity associated with forests at a variety of scales

Development and testing of indicators at coarse and fine scales

Classification and assessment of forest types, ecosystems and landscapes

Predictive modelling of indicators for forest types and landscapes

Develop sustainable extractive schedules

PVA for important species

Data management, access, integration and analysis of information

Forest mapping under GIS and remote sensing

Integration of primary databases with biological databases

Ecosystem management strategies

Adaptive management policies and procedures

Restoration of degraded forest ecosystems

Adaptation of management practices to global climate change

Mechanism to set old growth and primary forest objectives

Assessment of public and indigenous peoples’ acceptance of strategies

Determining centres of endemism

Determining rare and threatened species and their management

Improved understanding of traditional knowledge
(e) Research agenda to support management options
Understanding processes influencing biodiversity at a range of different scales

Relationships between biological diversity and productivity, biological diversity and stability and biological diversity and function within forest subtypes or ecosystems

Proper adaptive management experiments

Effects of forest use on species, communities, ecosystems and landscapes functioning

Testing umbrella properties of indicators and keystone species

Taxonomy of poorly defined taxa in tropical forests: fungi, invertebrates, flora

Functional relationship between animals and ecosystem processes

Gene diversity

Development of monitoring methods and technologies

ANNEX IV

Indicative list of major sources of information:

National Biological Diversity Reports – results from national reporting (CBD article26), and national biological diversity strategies and action plans (NBSAPs; CBD, Article 6) elaborated within the framework of the Convention. The Global Environmental Facility has provided support to 120 countries to assist in the preparation of NBSAPs and their first national report. The 114 national reports received by the Secretariat of the CBD are available at www.biodiv.org. National reports have been received from all regions as follows: Europe (32), Sub-Saharan Africa (28), Asia (14), Middle East/North Africa (9), South America (8), Caribbean (7), Australasia/Oceania (6), Central America (4), Indian Ocean Islands/Madagascar (4) and North America (2). National reports vary considerably in the level of information on biological diversity status that they contain. Most reports include descriptions of the different forest types present, sometimes with information on area and protected status. Information on species diversity is mainly total numbers of species present in broad taxonomic groups, sometimes with information on numbers of endemics and threatened species.

FAO’s FRA 2000 report (FAO, 2001a) will incorporate information related to forest biodiversity, including forests in protected areas (see paragraph 102). Information on FRA 2000 is available on line at www.fao.org/forestry/fo/fra/index.jsp

Expert Centre for Taxonomic Identification (an NGO based in Netherlands in collaboration with UNESCO) is developing a World Biological Diversity Database. This is a continuously growing taxonomic database and information system that aims at documenting all presently known species (about 1.7 million). The WBD [or WBDD?] is currently in test phase and contains approximately 56,000 taxa and is expected to expand by an additional 50,000 taxa per year. The database contains taxonomic information (hierarchies), species names, synonyms, descriptions, illustrations and literature references when available.

Global Mangrove Database and Information System (GLOMIS), being developed by the International Society for Mangrove Ecosystems with support from ITTO.

Global Biodiversity Assessment, V.H. Heywood, Executive Editor, R.R. Watson, Chair, United Nations Environmental Programme, Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Functional Role of Biological Diversity, Scientific Committee on Problems on Environment (SCOPE), Mooney at al., 1996.

Various research programmes aimed at examining the effects of management and other interventions on FBD, the evolutionary processes shaping genetic diversity and the relationships between biological diversity, forest functions, socio-economic development and sustainable livelihoods.

Reports from the IUFRO units on Biological Diversity and Population, Ecological and Conservation Genetics.

IUFRO - The Global Forest Information Service (GFIS) arises from the Proposals for Action of the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests and the Intergovernmental Forum on Forest. The mission of the GFIS Task Force is to implement an internet-based forest information service. The system is based on standardizing meta-information catalogues. The service will improve the dissemination and quality of forest-related data and information on forest resources, forest policy, criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management, research activities and other relevant issues. Members of the GFIS Task Force include: European Forest Institute, CIFOR, Forest Research Institute of Ghana, University of Greenwich, ITTO, CATIE, WRI, IUFRO, Chinese Academy of Forestry, FAO Forest Division, Oxford University, CAB International, WCMC, Finnish Forest Research Institute, EMBRAPA Florestas Brazil, US Forest Service, Canadian Forest Service, and Technical University of Vienna.

The website for GFIS is: http://iufro.boku.ac.at/iufro/taskforce/hptfgfis.htm

Other forest information websites include:

http://www.forest trends.org/keytrends/trendsinforests.htm

http://www.fao.org/forestry

http://www.unep wcmc.org/forest/homepage.htm

The main sources of information on the status of forest genetic resources at global and regional level are:

Reports of FAO’s Panel of Forest Gene Experts, the most recent being the 11^th session held in September-October 1999 (FAO 2000c).

Country Reports on the State of Forest Tree and Shrub Genetic Resources, available for a number of countries (see FAO 2000c) and regional status and action plans for North America (Rodgers and Ledig 1996), the Boreal Zone (Anon. 1996b) and Europe (Turok et al., 1998) prepared in the lead-up to the Fourth International Technical Conference on Plant Genetic Resources held in Leipzig, Germany, in June 1996 and more recently for dry-zone Sub-Saharan Africa (Sigaud et al., 1998), the Pacific Islands (Pouru 2000), and Southern Africa (Sigaud and Luanga 2000). At a regional level, the main gaps in information on forest genetic resources (diversity levels, processes and threats) are in South and South-east Asia, Central and South America and humid-zone, equatorial Africa. However, in a number of countries research projects are in progress to address these issues, e.g. Brazil’ Embrapa Dendrogene Project on genetic conservation within managed forests in Amazonia, Thailand’s Royal Forest Department Forest Genetic Resources Conservation and Management (FORGENMAP) Programme and IPGRI and partners research on genetic processes in India (Western Ghats), Costa Rica and Cameroon.

FAO’s Global Information System on Forest Genetic Resources or REFORGEN (http://www.fao.org/forestry/foris/reforgen/index.jsp. REFORGEN includes information on forest genetic resources for use in planning and decision-making at the national, regional and international levels. It presently gathers information from 146 countries on more than 1,600 tree species. A more complete data set on the threat status, both at species and population levels, and conservation measures, both in and ex situ, of included tree species would enhance REFORGEN’s utility for documenting and planning forest genetic resources conservation measures.