Developing criteria and indicators for evaluating sustainable forest management: A case study in Kyrgyzstan

The management of the walnut-fruit forests is one of the key issues in the forestry sector of Kyrgyzstan as it has to address the challenges related to the conservation of forest resources, socio-economic efficiency and the livelihoods of people. The demand for an assessment of the current forest management, which generally involves criteria and indicators (C&I) at all levels, from local to national has increased in the last decade. Therefore a case study has been done, applying a combination of a top-down and bottom-up approach with multi-criteria analysis (MCA) to identify a set of C&I with different groups of stakeholders in selected sites at the forestry management unit level (leshoz). Six workshops and a series of discussion meetings were conducted to perform a sound analysis of the preferences of four different stakeholder groups. A final set of C&I that consists of seven criteria and 45 indicators has been identified for evaluating sustainable forest management (SFM) in the walnut-fruit forests. Forest health and vitality was found to be the most important criterion, while the maintenance of forest biodiversity was found to be the least prioritized among other criteria. Furthermore, four different management strategies were developed by foresters, research groups, ecologists and forest administrators in order to overcome the present challenges in forest management. By utilizing the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), one particular management strategy (MS II) was identified by all stakeholder groups as being the overall best alternative strategy. It was shown that the consideration of non-timber forest products and other options for income generation can improve the livelihood of the people, increase the productivity of resources as well as conserving the gene pool for maintaining forest biodiversity. The findings of this study highlight the importance of a C&I evaluation and its further policy implications. Moreover, it is discussed how the involvement of local stakeholders in the decision making process and their participation in forest management could be stimulated by the C&I development process in the walnut forests of Kyrgyzstan.