The Sustainable Forestry Handbook is widely considered to be the essential aid to understanding and implementing sustainable forest management. Providing a clear and concise guide to the practicalities of implementing international standards for sustainable forest management, this fully updated second edition covers new Forest Stewardship Council requirements, High Conservation Value Forests, clearer requirements on pesticides and developments in policy and forest governance. Aimed at forest managers, and employing extensive cross referencing and easy-to-understand illustrations, this highly practical handbook explains in clear terms what the standards require forest managers to do and how they might go about implementing them.

Sophie Higman is a Project Manager at ProForest. James Mayers is Director of the Forestry and Land Use Programme at the International Institute for Environment and Development. Stephen Bass is Head of Environment at DFID. Neil Judd and Ruth Nussbaum are Directors of ProForest, Oxford.

Part I: Introduction to International Standards for Forest Management * What is Sustainable Forest Management? * Why Practice Sustainable Forest Management? * Standards for Sustainable Forest Management * Part II: What Do the Standards Require? * The Legal and Policy Framework * Sustained and Optimal Production of Forest Products * Protecting the Environment * The Wellbeing of People * Plantations * Performance Requirements * Part III: Using an Environmental Management System * Sustainable Forest Management Policy * Planning * Implementation * Checking * Management Review * Part IV: Meeting the Requirements * Planning * Implementation in the Forest * Monitoring * Part V: Tackling Social Issues * Why Social Issues are Important * Working with Stakeholders * Conditions of Employment * Monitoring Social Impacts * Dealing with Erroneous Perceptions and Unrealistic Expectations * Part VI: Forest Management Certification * Why Achieve Certification? * Choosing a Certification Scheme * The Certification Process * Small and Low Intensity Managed Forests * Group Certification * Phased Approaches to Certification * Chain of Custody * Other Certification-related Initiatives * Appendices * Index