WNMF Projects Manager Sean Dolter has been selected to co-facilitate the upcoming Model Forest Local Level Indicator Workshop in Argentina this month.

Argentina has been a member of the Working Group on Criteria and Indicators for the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Temperate and Boreal Forests, also known as the Montreal Process, since 1995.

Canada’s provinces own and regulate the use of their natural resources, including forests. Criteria and indicators (C&I) of sustainable forest management (SFM) allow provinces to measure progress toward achieving SFM at different scales, from international to local. Model Forests are established to assist in the advancement of SFM and, as such, ongoing assessment of the impacts and changes resulting from forest management and other landscape management practices is an important activity.

Canada’s Model Forests have extensive experience in implementing C&I for SFM at the local level, referred to as local level indicators (LLI, which are developed to suit the local and regional conditions of each Model Forest, provide a framework for monitoring changes, and assess the influence of many components of SFM. LLI can also assist a Model Forest in developing a broad and balanced program of work covering a range of SFM issues.

Dr. John Hall is Canada’s Project Lead for the Argentina workshop. As Science Advisor for Criteria and Indicators with the Canadian Forest Service, he has represented Canada on the Montreal Process Technical Advisory Committee for the last six years. Before that, Dr. Hall spent 10 years as the founding Manager of the Model Forest Program.

Sean was selected following a national call for a Model Forest site representative to co-facilitate the sessions in Argentina. He has had extensive experience with the Model Forest since 1992 and has been deeply involved in the development and application of local level indicators and related research planning.

The workshop will have three key focus areas:

1) Introduction to the concepts of C&I for SFM and local level indicators, including links to international and national C&I frameworks such as the Montreal Process.
2) Overview of various approaches to developing LLI (i.e., based on the CMFN’s Users’ Guide to Local Level Indications of Sustainable Forest Management).
3) Technical session on various uses of LLI.

The workshop is aimed at strategic members of the four Argentine Model Forests and will emphasize the participation of experts and/or professionals from each site. Three to four participants per Model Forest are expected to attend. National-level program staff and representatives from the Montreal Process Working Group will also participate in the workshop. Additionally, Model Forest representatives from across LAC-Net will be invited to participate provided they cover their own travel expenses.

The workshop will be hosted by the Jujuy Model Forest and is expected to take place over three days. The Canadian experts identified by NRCan–CFS will be requested to design the workshop based on the objectives outlined above.

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