DEFINITIONS & DISCUSSION - LLI Status Report 2008


Definitions and discussion: How is progress measured?
Progress towards sustainable forest management is measured against a series of yardsticks of varying detail and complexity. These yardsticks include criteria, which broadly outline the conditions considered essential for sustainability.

Next come goals, which summarize more specifically what should be achieved for each criterion.

Finally, there are indicators, which identify the individual factors to be measured. Although goals and indicators identified by the Foothills Model Forest reflect local values, needs and conditions, they’re also consistent with Canada’s national framework of sustainable forest management criteria.

After releasing its initial status report in 2003, the Foothills Model Forest board of directors decided to continue with the definitions below for the current report. This ensures consistency and ease of understanding for those reading and using this report.

  • Criteria: The criteria identified in the Montreal Process are the essential components of the sustainable management of forests. They include vital functions and attributes, socio-economic benefits, and the laws and regulations that constitute the forest policy framework. -- Montreal Process, Year 2000 Progress Report
  • Goals (objectives): Broad statements describing a desired state or condition. Goals are mandated by legislation and/or agreed to through a process of stakeholder input and participation. -- Foothills Model Forest LLI Project Team
  • Indicators: The Montreal Process indicators provide ways to assess or describe a criterion. Many indicators are quantitative, whereas others are qualitative or descriptive. All indicators provide information about the present conditions of forests and their use and, over time, will establish the direction of change in these variables. -- Montreal Process, Year 2000 Progress Report

There are currently a number of stewardship-based processes for certifying a company’s products as sustainable. On a voluntary basis, the forest industry can work to achieve certification for the purpose of marketing their products as coming from sustainably managed forests. These processes are all indicator-based. For more detail on these processes, please see the National Sustainable Forest Management Standard (CSA) (CAN/CSA-Z809).