1.1 This guide provides a list of criteria and indicators that have been shown to be useful in achieving the goals of a sustainable forest management plan. This guide lists a set of criteria considered to be important for the following tasks:

1.1.1 To describe, assess, and evaluate progress toward sustainability of forest management at the national, regional, or individual forest level.

1.1.2 To inform the policy debate at regional, national, and international levels.

1.1.3 To evaluate the attributes of a forest management certification or evaluation system with a specific combination of forest management principles, practices, or adaptations, where such practices are evaluated against a set of prescribed standards. Although this guide provides a qualitative list of criteria for evaluation of forest conditions, it does not purport to recommend any specific forest management certification or evaluation system or subset of overall attributes. The guide does not replace forest certification or verification standards.

1.2 This guide will require compilation of information from multiple sources across various governmental and nongovernmental agencies. For this guide to be useful, it is recommended that the information collected is in alignment with that which is already collected for other purposes; otherwise these indicators may be too great an effort to combine in a timely fashion.

Note 1—Although this document provides general guidance applicable to forests and forest products from many countries, its initial application is expected to focus on North America.

1.3 This guide cannot replace education or experience and should be used in conjunction with professional judgment such as that provided by foresters, forest scientists, and wood technologists.

1.4 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use.