national boundaries; REALISING that forests are a rich source of genetic resources; that they contain potentially valuable genetic material, and that some users who have gained access to genetic resources of forests have not been required to share benefits derived from their use; CONVINCED that State Parties will benefit from regional standards for, and approaches to, forest management and the development of trade in products from sustainably managed forests; RECOGNISING the vital role of forests in the protection of water catchments, including shared watercourses, in the Region and the responsibility of the individual Member States, within which the catchments fall, to protect and manage those forests; RECALLING that one of the fundamental purposes of SADC is to achieve development and economic growth through regional integration and believing that regional cooperation to improve standards of forest management, use of forestry resources, and the quality of forest products in the Region, will assist in achieving this; CONVINCED that all State Parties will benefit by mutually assisting each other to address issues of common concern, to build capacity, and to share information and expertise, in the forest sector; MINDFUL of the need to uphold other related international and regional biological diversity and environmental obligations, including those duties contained in other Protocols and to take account of international forest-related initiatives; and CONSCIOUS of our responsibility to our peoples and to future generations to conserve forests and to use forest resources sustainably and wisely; HEREBY AGREE as follows: ARTICLE 1: DEFINITIONS 1. In this Protocol, terms and expressions defined in Article 1 of the Treaty shall bear the same meaning unless the context otherwise requires. 2. In this Protocol, unless the context otherwise requires: "alien species" means any living organism occurring outside of its natural range and includes any propagule of such an organism that might survive and subsequently reproduce; "community-based forest management" means the management of forest resources by one or more local communities on the basis of a right to manage or to receive benefits from those forests; "conservation" means the protection, maintenance, rehabilitation, restoration and enhancement of forests and efforts to ensure that the use thereof is sustainable; "ecosystem" means a dynamic complex of plant, animal and micro-organism