Criteria and Indicators

Criteria

Criteria and Indicators (C&I) provide a framework for gathering data and for evaluating the importance, status, and sustainability of the management of complex landscapes. Criteria define broad categories of capacity, goals or processes that are essential to sustainable resource management. Criteria address biological diversity, ecosystem condition and productivity, social, cultural and spiritual values, recreation values, ownership patterns, economic health, institutional processes that support forest conservation and sustainable management.

	Conservation of Biological Diversity		Ownership Patterns
	Ecosystem Condition and Productivity		Economic Health
	Social/Cultural		Institutional Processes
	Outdoor Recreation

Indicators

Under each criterion there are multiple indicators. Indicators help the DNR to evaluate resource management plans and policies and/or assess the impact of these plans and policies on the environment. Indicators monitor how a system operates or functions. Any indicator by itself provides limited information about the system as a whole. To effectively monitor a complex system, such as a forest, more than one indicator may be required. The different values held by people about the environmental, social, and economic spheres of forests may also require a diverse set of indicators to depict the many facets of forests and forest management. The information derived from monitoring changes in common indicators contributes to an improved understanding of the consequences of earlier decisions, which leads to informed decision making processes for sustainable resource management.

Metrics

Metrics are used to identify data needed to measure indicators. They provide the means to measure or describe various aspects of the indicators, and are a tool used for monitoring the progress toward achieving sustainable forest management. Metrics, therefore, need to be discrete, explicit and easy to quantify. The purpose of a metric is:

1. to measure the condition of a resource,
2. to measure the level of stress or pressure on a resource,
3. to provide a direct measure of a management action taken to either improve conditions or reduce stress on a resource, or
4. to measure the outcome of management.

The non-achievement of a metric or a significant change in a trend measured by a metric provides an indication that management processes may need to be adjusted or changed to meet management goals and objectives necessary to achieve a sustainable desired future condition for a specific ecological, social or economic value.

No criterion, indicator or metric alone can provide an adequate measure of resource sustainability. The criteria considered together provide a more comprehensive picture of the status of natural resources and their management. Criteria and Indicators will likely be adapted over time to reflect experience gained with their use, new research findings, advances in technology, and public understanding of natural resources.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has developed a core set of Criteria and Indicators to provide a standardized statewide basis for planning and monitoring of DNR-managed lands. All ecoteams will use the core set of C&I in Ecoregional Resource Plans.