Assessment of socio-economic criteria and indicators in monitoring of Kalgachi lordegan forest management plan

In an era of unprecedented industrialization and urbanization, sustainable forest management (including management and conservation measures) are particularly essential. In this context, the criteria and indicators are considered as means for defining, monitoring and assessment of forest sustainability. However, the existing database of research on such criteria and indicators in Iran is still limited. Hence, this study aims at defining a set of criteria and indicators in an example of Kalgachi local system, Chaharmahal-va-Bakhtiari province. This research was performed in several stages using different methods. In the first stage, socio-economic indicators of the Near East Process were prioritized by questionnaires to adapt the regional conditions. The indicators were further compared pair wise using further questioners. In the last step, a set of expert interviews, field studies, local community survey and document reviews in related organizations within the study area were conducted to determine the criteria and indicators. Based on the results, the finally-selected socio-economic indicators based on expert’s opinions and forest-dependent communities included the reduction in the number of interferences to forest areas, improvement of livelihood of forest-dependent communities, cooperation of local communities with equal rights (e.g. in number of groups and man/women share) and cooperation on agricultural development and conditions.