**4.1 Regional management sub-process**

The first major goal of Regional Management would be to develop a revision to the current Plan Forestal de Galicia – PFG (Xunta de Galicia, 1992) based upon principles of sustainability, input from the public and the forest sector, and the best current forestry knowledge. A Regional Committee for Sustainable Forestry representing all regional stakeholders would endorse a Declaration of Regional Principles of Sustainability based

<sup>1</sup> Galicia is divided into 19 Forest Districts that have common physical, biological, economic and social characteristics. It can be argued that it is only at the level of the Forest District that it is possible to manage for critical landscape, territorial and community objectives and constraints.

Sustainable Forest Management in Galicia (Spain): Lessons Learned 225

It should be noted that the PFE established general goals and guidelines for lower levels of planning in order ensure the fulfillment of the international commitments assumed by the

Since most individual forests in Galicia are privately owned, the government does not have direct control of the forest management undertaken in them. This is particularly true of the very small ownerships that comprise almost 70% of Galician forests, where forest management (if there is any) is up to the individual owner. Even in the 30% of private forests owned by communities and managed by government foresters, community objectives may be at odds with those of the region or district. However, the government is not without tools to influence the management of private forests. The government controls subsidies for management activities and has the right to regulate some forest activities such as harvesting in certain forest types or authorizing the plantation of certain species (such as *Eucalyptus globulus*). Furthermore, the government could be seen as the sole organization capable of implementing a management infrastructure that would be capable of facilitating regional forest certification, which could be seen as the most viable approach to certification given ownership patterns. This infrastructure would include the planning and control mechanisms, Best Management Practice (or BMP) Codes and a series of silvicultural models

In the absence of clear regional and district plans, it was difficult for the government to justify the use of such tools in any focused manner, and advancing credible forest certification was seen as difficult. With regional and district forest management guidelines and plans in place, the government would be able to give priority for subsidies and harvest approvals to forest owners who followed the district (and, thereby, regional) plans. As well, the implementation of the planning, monitoring and control systems envisioned in the new SFM process would facilitate the certification of even small forest ownerships, as long as

The application of HFM requires that problems be decomposed and the various elements handled at the appropriate level of the management hierarchy. However, since it is usually impossible to solve all parts of the problem simultaneously, it is necessary to use an iterative approach to planning and control. This means that, although higher levels of the hierarchy give direction to (or constrain) the lower-level management processes, the lower-level processes should provide feedback to the upper levels so that the plans and decisions at higher levels can be refined and improved. Depending upon the complexity and importance of the problem and the time involved and available, several iterations of this process might occur. In the case of the proposed SFM process for Galicia, the main steps of this iterative

1. A draft regional plan for Galicia would be developed by the regional DXM technical staff based upon the declaration of principles, state of the forest, knowledge of forest processes, forecasts of forest products markets and other economic data and forecasts.

2. This rough first version of the plan would then be passed down to districts as (generally) aspatial guidelines and constraints to Forest District planners. It might

The plan would be general, but would define specific goals and constraints.

they are managed in a way that conforms to the local FDMP, BMPs and SMs.

Spanish government.

(SMs) for major forest species.

**4.4 Management integration processes** 

approach were expected to be:

**4.3 Forest management unit sub-process** 

Fig. 1. Proposed SFM Framework for Galicia

upon international, EU and Spanish principles of forest sustainability, but recognizing the specific goals and constraints of Galicia. The revised PFG, developed by regional technical staff within the integrated process described below, would make explicit the long-term forest management goals of the region, the actions required to achieve goals, and terms of the "*co-responsibility contract"* that define responsibilities of forest sector players with respect to actions.

The second goal would involve the monitoring and control of results and actions to ensure that the specific objectives of SFM for Galicia are being achieved.
