New Zealand Journal of Forestry (2014) 59(1): 15–20
©New Zealand Institute of Forestry

Feature article
Still sustainability after all these years: an overview of international and development forestry

Chris Brown ¹ and Patrick B. Durst <sup>2

1</sup> Consultant, Food and Agriculture Organization, United Nations (FAO)
² Senior Forestry Officer, FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific

Introduction In 1713, Hans Carl Von Carlowitz published Sylvicultura Oeconomica laying out principles for sustainable yield in forestry. Three hundred years later sustainable forest management underpins most objectives in international forestry, although this is not always immediately evident. In fact, a casual observer of international forestry may well find themselves floundering in an almost impenetrable jungle of acronyms that often disguises the evolution of dialogue, as well as key processes and players. Perhaps the most significant feature in international forestry over the past 30 years has been an enormous proliferation of institutions and interest groups seeking to influence forest management. This has served to fragment the forestry agenda with the emergence of a wide variety of specialist, but nonetheless inter-related and overlapping, processes and dialogues addressing both specific aspects of forestry, and forestry in the context of wider multi-sectoral frameworks. This paper seeks to unravel and explain some of this complex fabric to help make comprehensible – especially to those on the outside looking in – the main processes, themes and objectives of international forestry.
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