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Criteria and indicators
of monitoring the sustainable wood production and forest
conservation using AHP (Case study: Kheyrud educational and
research forest)
S. Zahra Goushegir*,
Jahangir Feghhi, Mohammad Reza Marvi Mohajer and
Majid Makhdoum
Department of Forestry and Forest Economics, Faculty of
Natural Resources, University of Tehran, P. O. Box
31585-4314, Karaj, Iran.
*Corresponding author. E-mail:
goushegiravellana@yahoo.com.
Accepted 7 September, 2009 |
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Sustainable forest management is known as the most effective
type of forest management. This mode of management is aimed
at enabling sustainable and comprehensive development in
forest-related sectors. Practicing sustainable management in
forests requires powerful tools in order to ensure achieving
objectives of forest management and, at the same time,
direct processes in a sustainable way. Forest management
plan is the most suitable means to carry out this type of
monitoring. Though, the forest management plan is a tool to
set in motion, a management scheme. This requires certain
proper criteria and indicators in practice. The criteria and
indicators have various applications within a forest
management plan, including their application in monitoring
forest management plans. In fact, the criteria and
indicators are themselves derived from the functions
practiced in forests. Therefore, knowing a few functions of
forests, we can outline monitoring criteria and indicators.
This study is aimed at prioritizing the criteria and
indicators required for monitoring forest management plans
in Caspian forests in general and Kheyrud Forest in
particular. This is the first study made using a
hierarchical analysis for two functions of wood production
and forest conservation in Caspian forests. Formulating
these criteria helps monitoring the forest’s functions and
can be used in determining, measuring, analyzing and
assessing sustainability in the forest under study.
Key
words:
Monitoring criteria and indicators, forest management plan,
wood production function, forest conservation function.
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