Indicators Thinktank Forum
held September 27-28, 2006

Admiral Fell Inn, Baltimore, MD

(Wednesday and Thursday)

Sponsored by the National Commission on Science for Sustainable Forestry (www.ncssf.org)

Organized by Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences (contact John Hagan at jmhagan@prexar.com

Announcements

The meeting notes taken on the computer can be downloaded here. (click here).

 

List of Participants and email addresses (click here)

  

If you were a participant and would like the audio (MP3) files from the meeting, request directly from John Hagan.  The files are too large to send via email.

Relevant Reading Posted by Participants (click here)

Relevant Web Sites Posted by Participants (click here)

Download Full Meeting Agenda (click here)

Meeting Question Series

Day 1

             Opening: What is the scope of our collective experience with indicators?

1. What are the purposes of indicators?
2. How do different indicator systems serve different indicator needs?
3. Who are sustainability indicators for?
4. Who should be involved in indicator selection? (
5. What is the role of stakeholders in indicator selection and use?
6. Can/should indicators be scalable? (e.g., from municipal to national scales).
7. How should the frequent mismatch between data availability and data needs be handled by indicator selection processes?
8. How does indicator selection and use vary by spatial scale and by audience? (international, national, region, state, county, municipality).

           [end Day 1]

Day 2

Warm-up question: Can you think of a specific example where a decision was made, on the ground or in policy, with an indicator? (or)  If not, can you make up a specific example in which an indicator is used to make an on-the-ground or policy decision?

1. INTEGRATING SECTORS: Who can provide a concrete example where economic, social, environmental indicators were calculated, and tradeoffs evaluated?   Are there tools to help evaluate tradeoffs?
2. SETTING GOALS for INDICATORS: Should goals, or target levels (qualitative or quantitative) be set for indicators? Provide an example where goals were set that involved indicators.
3. DECISION MAKING WITH INDICATORS: Selecting indicators was the easy part. Now what?  Can anyone cite an example of a decision that was made using indicators?  Should there be a decision-making framework for putting indicators to use?  (i.e., Specification of what actions will be taken by whom, and when indicator reaches ‘X’ level)
4. How would you determine successful use of indicators? What would be the indicators of a successful indicator system?
5. What would be the best way to disseminate this work?
   

           [end Day 2]

Thinktank Participants

Bernabo, Chris- National Commision on Science for Sustainable Forestry/NCSE: chris@ncseonline.org
Carpenter, Connie- USDA Forest Service Northeast Region: conniecarpenter@fs.fed.us
Cox, Graham- New York Audubon: gcox@audubon.org
Emery, Mary- Iowa State University: memery@iastate.edu
Fedkiw, John- USDA Forest Service: jfedkiw@fs.fed.us
Guldin, Rich- USDA Forest Service: rguldin@fs.fed.us
Hagan, John- Manomet Center: jmhagan@ime.net
Hart, Maureen- Sustainable Measures: mhart@sustainablemeasures.com
Heintz, Ted- Council on Environmental Quality: theodore_heintz@ceq.eop.gov
Horan, Jeff- Maryland DNR: JHORAN@dnr.state.md.us
Kohrman, Elaine- USDA Forest Service: ekohrman@fs.fed.us
Magis, Kristen- Portland State University: Kmagis@aol.com
McWilliams, Ruth- USDA Forest Service: rmcwilliams@fs.fed.us
Mitsos, Mary- National Forest Foundation: mmitsos@natlforests.org
Morman , David- Oregon Department of Forestry: dmorman@odf.state.or.us
Outen, Don- Baltimore County: douten@co.ba.md.us
Robertson, Guy- USDA Forest Service: grobertson02@fs.fed.us
Schoonhoven, Laurie- Sustainable Forestry Partnership: lms28@psu.edu
Tritton, Louise- The Heron Group: ltritton@haverford.edu
VanSickle, Charles- Southern Forest Experiment Station: cvans1@juno.com
Welde, Alison- Sustainable Forestry Board: weldea@aboutsfb.org
West, Jay- Meridian Institute: jwest@merid.org
Whitman, Andrew- Manomet Center: awhitman@prexar.com
Wilkerson, Ethel- Manomet Center: ewilkerson@prexar.com

Recommended Reading by Thinktank Participants

Ten common mistakes in designing biodiverstiy indicators for forest policy.  Failing, L, and R. Gregory.  Journal of Environmental Managment 2003 68:121-132.  A very good article thay warns against common mistakes in indicator selection and use.  Study makes an important disctinction between using indicators for monitoring and using indicators for decision making.  (click here for PDF)

Bottom up and top down: Analysis of participatory processes for sustainability indicator identification as a pathway to community empowerment and sustainabl environmental management.  Journal of Environmental Management 2006 78:114-127.  (click here for PDF)  This article proposd that indicator selection and use is an excellent way to engage stakeholders (people) in a converstation about sustainability.  "Its not about the indicators, stupid."

 

Relevant Web Sites Recommended by Thinktank Participants

Thinktank Web site:

www.manometmaine.org/Thinktank.htm

National Report on Sustainable Forestry 2003 (Rich Guldin and Ruth McWilliams)

http://www.fs.fed.us/research/sustain/

Sustainable Measures Website (Maureen Hart)

http://www.sustainablemeasures.com/

Baltimore County Linking Communities to Montreal Criteria and Indicators (Don Outen)

http://www.co.ba.md.us/Agencies/environment/workgroup/index.html

username: deprm password: environment

Oregon Department of Forestry Sustainable Indicators Project (David Morman)

http://www.oregon.gov/ODF/RESOURCE_PLANNING/Sustainable_Forest_Indicators_Project.shtml

Northeastern U.S. Regional Indicators (Connie Carpenter)

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/sustainability/base/base.shtm

Forest Sustainability Indicator Tools for Communities (2003) developed by the Communities subcommittee of the 7th American Forest Congress
http://communitiescommittee.org/fsitool/index.html

Meridian Roundtable on Sustainable Forests (contact Jay West)

http://www.sustainableforests.net/

For The Heron Group LLC (Louise Tritton's group)

http://www.herongroupllc.com

Hopewell Big Woods Project (Louise Tritton)

http://www.natlands.org/projects/project.asp?fldProjectId=1

For general information about NetWeaver (TM) and GeoNetWeaver (TM), the decision-support tools for natural resources management:  (also contact Louise Tritton)

http://www.herongroupllc.com/docs/report109.pdf

For the Heron Group's study in South Africa in which there was integration of social, biophysical and economic indicators:  (also contact Louise Tritton)
http://www.herongroupllc.com/docs/report105.pdf 

North Central Regional Center for Rural Development (Mary Emery's Center)

http://www.ncrcrd.iastate.edu/

For more information, contact:

Dr. John M. Hagan
Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences
14 Maine St., Suite 305
Brunswick, Maine 04011
ph: 207-721-9040

e-mail: jmhagan@ime.net
www.manometmaine.org