Psychological values and cues as a basis for developing socially relevant criteria and indicators for forest management

Criteria and indicators (C & I) have proven an essential tool for managers implementing sustainable forest management, but have been less effective for communication with the wider community. We demonstrate a new bottom-up approach to developing socially relevant C & I using social analysis and psychology-based concepts and methods. Our conceptual framework links the concepts of valued attributes and environmental cues with, respectively, criteria and indicators. We illustrate our approach using thirty-six semi-structured interviews of individual members of the general public and of stakeholder groups in Victoria, southern Australia. The interviews included a modified cognitive mapping task to identify attributes of forests valued by the interviewees, as well as cues used by them to know if a valued attribute was present or had changed. Seven broad valued attributes of forests were identified: Natural; Experiential; Productive; Setting; Social/Economic; Learning; and Cultural. Four broad categories of cues were identified: Biophysical; Social/Psychological; Economic; and Management/Planning. Cues were translated into a set of measurable ‘socially relevant’ indicators of forest management. Comparison with existing frameworks revealed some similarities, but that an important component of public evaluations, Experiential and Setting valued attributes, was largely absent from C & I used in Victoria, which are based on the Montreal Process framework. Some socially relevant indicators aligned with existing indicators, but others were poorly represented, particularly sensory indicators that are concerned with subjective experiences of forests. Our approach demonstrates a new way of developing C & I and has a strong conceptual basis that enables more explicit consideration and communication of a comprehensive range of social values and cues in environmental management systems.