Participants at the Second Regional Workshop on the ITTO Voluntary Guidelines for the Sustainable Management of Natural Tropical Forests, held on 8–12 May 2017 in Cotonou, Benin, agreed there was a need to revise the ATO/ITTO Principles, Criteria and Indicators for the Sustainable Management of Natural Tropical Forests in Africa. The workshop, which was convened in collaboration with Benin’s Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development and General Directorate of Forestry, was attended by 33 practitioners and policymakers from ITTO member countries in Africa.

The aim of the workshop was to stimulate the development and implementation of national and subnational guidelines on sustainable forest management (SFM), drawing on the ITTO Voluntary Guidelines for the Sustainable Management of Natural Tropical Forests and the experiences of countries in the region.

The voluntary guidelines, which were published in 2015, provide guidance for forest managers, policymakers and other forest stakeholders in addressing the policy, legal, governance, institutional, ecological, social and economic issues that need to be taken into account in the planning, implementation and evaluation of SFM in natural tropical forests to ensure the sustainable provision of forest goods and environmental services. The guidelines update and replace the ITTO Guidelines for the Sustainable Management of Natural Tropical Forests, which date to 1992.

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