PRINCIPLE #7: MANAGEMENT PLAN
A management plan -- appropriate to the scale and intensity of the operations -- shall be written, implemented, and kept up to date. The long-term objectives of management, and the means of achieving them, shall be clearly stated.
Management plans should specifically incorporate NTFPs destined for commercial sale and enumerate management objectives, and harvest areas, rates and techniques for target NTFPs, whether these are harvested by FMOs or third parties. Harvest levels and methods should be rationalized through published literature, site-specific data and/or local knowledge.Poorly trained NTFP harvesters can cause great damage to forest resources.Forest worker training is central to realizing good management planning and implementation of proper harvesting techniques in the field.
7.1 The management plan and supporting documents shall provide:
a) Management objectives.
b). Description of the forest resources to be managed, environmental limitations, land use and ownership status, socio-economic conditions, and a profile of adjacent lands.
c) Description of silvicultural and/or other management system, based on the ecology of the forest in question and information gathered through resource inventories.
d) Rationale for rate of annual harvest and species selection.
e) Provisions for monitoring of forest growth and dynamics.
f) Environmental safeguards based on environmental assessments.
g) Plans for the identification and protection of rare, threatened and endangered species.
h) Maps describing the forest resource base including protected areas, planned management activities and land ownership.
i) Description and justification of harvesting techniques and equipment to be used.
The management plan, or appendices to the plan, specifically addresses and incorporates commercially-managed NTFPs, including:
–Management objectives,
–Resource use rights and socio-economic conditions of harvesters;
–Harvest areas (described in a map, if possible);
–Rate, timing, and quantity of NTFPs to be harvested, based upon plant part used (exudate, reproductive propagule, vegetative structure) and established best management practices for each NTFP;
–Description of and justification for the amount of each NTFP harvested, the implemented harvesting technique and the equipment used;
–Sources of information that sustain the rationale behind NTFP management activities, (i.e., based on site-specific field data, local knowledge or published regional forest research and government requirements).
7.2 The management plan shall be periodically revised to incorporate the results of monitoring or new scientific and technical information, as well as to respond to changing environmental, social and economic circumstances. 7.3 Forest workers shall receive adequate training and supervision to ensure proper implementation of the management plan. NTFP harvesters receive information, training and/or supervision to ensure the management plan is implemented in the field. 7.4 While respecting the confidentiality of information, forest managers shall make publicly available a summary of the primary elements of the management plan, including those listed in Criterion 7.1.