The group finalised its work at the third meeting in Uppsala, Sweden, 11-12 June 2009.
The participants expressed their gratitude to Sweden for taking the lead in the work, and agreed on recommendations that will be brought to the MCPFE Expert Level Meeting for consideration in November 2009.
The working group pointed to the broad acceptance and support for the MCPFE tools in general. Nevertheless, the lack of binding status of the tools and their limitations concerning verification purposes were identified as barriers for the tools’ use by regulatory processes and institutions.
The working group recommended that the MCPFE tools should be refined and further developed to serve assessment of performance and verification of sustainable forest management. Possible refinements include revisions of indicators and operational level guidelines, and thresholds values on specific elements that can be used for verification purposes at European or national levels. Secondly, the working group recommended that the role of forest management in relation to climate change mitigation and adaptations should be clarified and strengthened for actions in the signatory countries of the MCPFE. The working group’s suggestions include further investigation of strategies for adaptation of forests to climate change, implications of land use changes on climate change mitigation and adaptation, and mitigation potentials of, e.g. bioenergy and wood constructions.
