Development of appropriate performance indicators for monitoring sustainability of Hyrcanian forest functions, north of Iran (Case study: Kheyrud forest)

Sustainable forest function monitoring needs to develop appropriate forest functions and performance indicators to assist decision making، analyses and evaluation of sustainable forest functions. This study for first time generate a set of performance indicators for monitoring forest function as a case study for kheyrud forest located on east of Nowshahr، Iran. The method of this study consists of three phases. In the first phase 77 indicators are developed for four forest functions including; forest production، forest conservation، forest protection and forest recreation، then this set of indicators are prioritized based on importance of binominal test. In second phase this set is prioritized based on difficulty of measurements on field. The result show، indicators are in two groups; more important indicators as a main indicator for sustainable forest functions and less important indicator as an alternative indicator for first group. In the last phase، all of indicators based on two aspects of importance and performance are mixed and divided in to four groups; less operational and less important، operational and less important، less operational and important، operational important. The final set is developed based on operatioanl and important indicators and is appropriate for sustainable monitoring of Northern forest functions in Iran.