Explaining the criteria and indicators of sustainable management of forests in Zagros basin from the point of view of forest specialists and experts

Currently, biodiversity in the Zagros region faces two serious threats including land use changes and unstable harvesting. These factors both alone and in combination, can lead to severe and irreversible damage to the forests. Therefore, the restoration, reconstruction, protection and sustainable management of forest ecosystems in the Zagros vegetation area has always been the main(basic) concern of activists and officials in this basin. Therefore, the present study was conducted to explain the criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management in Zagros vegetation area from the point of view of experts, using content analysis technique. The research data were collected through semi-structured interviews. People involved in research includes specialists, manager scientific and executive experts and experts related to Zagros forests.For data analysis, MAXqda12 software was used. The research findings indicate that among the most important criteria identified for sustainable management of forests in the Zagros vegetation from the point of view of experts are the criteria of forest size and production capacity, conservation functions, ecosystem conditions, conservation criteria biodiversity, economic criteria. Social criteria, criteria of laws and structures and educational and extension criteria. It should be noted that for each of the relevant criteria, the indicators corresponding to that criterion were also identified (8 criteria and 18 indicators). Our findings indicate that, the most important indicators for sustainable management in the Zagros vegetation region are the indicators of law-making and total forest area belonging to the criteria of laws and organization and to the criteria of ecosystem conditions, respectively. The results of this study can be used in line with principled policies in the forest resources of the Zagros Basin and for planning, decision making and success in this field.