Criteria & indicators for community forest management: building-up criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management at community level: a case in Ghana

This study was carried out in Ghana with two communities managing two forest reserves. Two sets of participatory criteria and indicators (C&I) for sustainable forest management have been defined: the communities themselves decided what their own C&I would be. This gives an example of what participatory sets could be. They are small and tractable to allow easy ownership, while covering all the major issues of sustainability. They contain a majority of indicators of results, which give more intrasigence to the assessment, necessary since communities will be in the position of both judge and jury when they will accomplish their assessment. Concerning the method, this case study tested and validated the approach of the CIFOR C&I while ideas for improvement emerged.