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Legal, Institutional, and Economic Indicators of Forest Conservation and Sustainable Management: Review of Information Available for the United States

Informally Refereed

Abstract

This review looks at the Nation’s legal, institutional, and economic capacity to promote forest conservation and sustainable resource management. It focuses on 20 indicators of Criterion Seven of the so-called Montreal Process and involves an extensive search and synthesis of information from a variety of sources. It identifies ways to fill information gaps and improve the usefulness of several indicators. It concludes that there is substantial information about the application of such capacities, although that application is widely dispersed among agencies and private interests; which in turn has led to differing interpretations of the indicators. Individual chapters identify a need to further develop the conceptual foundation on which many of the indicators are predicated. While many uncertainties in the type and accuracy of information are brought to light, the review clearly indicates that legal, institutional, and economic capacities to promote sustainability are large and widely available in both the public and private sectors.

Keywords

Criterion and indicators, economic capacity, institutional capacity, legal capacity, Montreal Process, sustainable management

Citation

Ellefson, Paul V.; Hibbard, Calder M.; Kilgore, Michael A.; Granskog, James E., eds. 2005. Legal, Institutional, and Economic Indicators of Forest Conservation and Sustainable Management: Review of Information Available for the United States. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-82. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 221 p.
Citations
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/20799