Identification and prioritization of criteria and indicators in the forest landscape restoration (case study: Chehl-Chay watershed, Golestan Province)

Deforestation and forest degradation have led to the formation of poor landscapes all over the world. Although in the past conservation strategies have emphasized intact natural systems, today the strategies have focused on the conservation and restoration of degraded ecosystems. The forest landscape restoration approach (FLR) is considered an important approach for the restoration of ecological and socio-economic services of forest ecosystems in landscape scales. Identification and prioritization of efficient and effective criteria and indicators in the process of prioritizing areas to restore the forest landscape are a necessity that has not been done in Iran so far. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to introduce effective criteria and indicators for prioritizing appropriate areas for forest landscape restoration in the selected area. In this study, a total of 26 criteria and 68 indicators from ecological and socio-economic points of view were identified with an emphasis on directing restoration efforts towards areas that guarantee maximum profits from two perspectives of necessity (the need for restoration) and opportunity (feasibility of a restoration) and then, they were prioritized using the Delphi method. The results showed that in the section on the need for restoration, the process of landscape degradation from ecological criteria and poverty from socio-economic criteria were the first priorities. Besides, the ecological criteria of destruction and natural regeneration potential with equal priority and socio-economic criterion of the budget in terms of feasibility of reconstruction were the first priority. The results of this study, in addition to helping decision-makers and planners dealing with protecting nature protection and its use, can lead to the attraction of active participation of stakeholders in the forest landscape restoration programs with a balanced attention to both aspects of the necessity and the opportunity of restoration.