December 2014: The International Tropical Timber Council (ITTC) approved revised guidelines for the sustainable management of forests, setting out eleven principles and establishing an international reference for national and sub-national action. The revised principles and guidelines are an updated version of those adopted for the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) in 1991.

Overall, the principles and guidelines call for the establishment of an appropriate enabling environment for sustainable forest management (SFM), require information on the extent and health of forests, recognize the multiple functions and values of tropical forests, and recognize social, cultural and economic aspects of SFM. The principles also focus on the implementation of SFM, highlighting forest management and planning at the regional and national level as well as silvicultural management at the level of individual forest management units.

The principles and guidelines link to ITTO criteria and indicators (C&I), which are scheduled to be reviewed in 2015 based on experiences in the implementation of C&I through ITTO as well as other processes such as FOREST EUROPE, which has developed a pan-European set of C&I. [Publication: ITTO Principles and Guidelines for the Sustainable Management of Natural Tropical Forests] [FOREST EUROPE Pres Release]