Determination criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management based on the views of experts and local people (Case study: Asalem Forests, north of Iran)

This paper aimed at identifying and providing the appropriate criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management in northern Iran, and the comparison between the views of local people and experts and priorities of each of these two groups of criteria and indicators. Four processes including Montreal, Helsinki, Near East FAO and CIFOR criteria and indicators were used as basis among the existing international procedures, Through Multi-criteria decision-making methods a series of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management was selected. Criteria and indicators of the first stage were separately judged by teams of experts and local people. Finally, through the process of network analysis, creating a model and developing the relationships between the criteria and indicators to calculate the final weight and prioritize them were conducted. The results included a series of 11 criteria and 65 indicators. According to experts, the criteria for the conservation of biodiversity and the protective functions of forests had the highest weights (0.1011 and 0.8944, respectively) and criteria for effective local management of conservation and access to resources had the lowest weight (0.07998). According to the local people, the criteria for the socio-economic functions and the maintenance of the productive capacity of forests had the highest weights (0.9501 and 0.9069, respectively) and criteria for conservation of biodiversity had the lowest weight (0.07994). The results indicated that successful management of forests requires joint decision-making between experts and local people, which in turn depends on the relationship and mutual understanding between the two groups.