Guiding principles for developing an indicator and monitoring framework

Sustainable forest management ideally involves five elements: 1) establishing a clear set of values, goals and objectives and, 2) planning actions that are most likely to meet desired goals and objectives, 3) implementing appropriate management activities, 4) monitoring the outcomes to check on predictions, effectiveness, and assumptions, and 5) evaluating and adjusting management depending on the outcome of monitoring. Within this framework, indicators are used to determine whether the outcome of management has met the intended goals. In this paper we provide general guidance for developing an integrated and logical monitoring system, define and differentiate between "evaluative" and "prescriptive" indicators, provide more specific advice on choosing evaluative indicators (including a comparison of types of ecological indicators), and provide specific advice on defining prescriptive indicators. Our guidelines for developing an indicator and monitoring framework are based on three principles. The first principle is to develop a logical framework, including 1) establishing clear values and goals before setting indicators and objectives, and 2) linking prescriptive and evaluative indicators directly to plan objectives, and to each other. The second principal is to use the framework to learn adaptively by: 1) designing management activities to address specific questions, 2) learning about thresholds, and 3) testing assumptions. The third principal is to create a formal plan for learning.