Expert opinion on the criteria and indicator process and Aboriginal communities: Are objectives being met?

Developed in the 1990s, the process of criteria and indicators (C&I) has been used to conceptualize, evaluate and implement sustainable forest management (SFM). However, to assess their effectiveness we explore whether their use in management leads to changes, especially at the local level in Aboriginal communities. More specifically, can C&I justify Aboriginal use of C&I? Since local-level C&I are a recent initiative, the effectiveness of the C&I process in assessing progress towards SFM was assessed via interviews with experts associated with the development of local-level Aboriginal C&I frameworks in Canada on use, integration and needs of Aboriginal communities for C&I. Our results suggest that C&I in Aboriginal communities are considered to be “just another reference point” because: 1) Aboriginal objectives are maintained at arm's length from the forest management process; 2) the use of C&I as a negotiating tool has not been sufficient to culturally adapt forest management for Aboriginal values and objectives and 3) Aboriginal values have been restricted to the elaboration of C&I and the Aboriginal definition of SFM, but they are not part of the evaluation nor the implementation of SFM. In contrast to the forest industry, Aboriginal communities identified the following objectives as motivation for using C&I: Aboriginal representation, Aboriginal engagement, capacity building and empowerment. Without explicitly acknowledging these Aboriginal community objectives, C&I becomes a tool restricted primarily to forest managers and thus sustainable forest management becomes unattainable. In effect, the underlying issue is not C&I in themselves but the limited role Aboriginal communities have been allowed to have in the SFM process.