Forest aesthetic indicators in sustainable forest management standards

Sustainable forest management (SFM) standards have been criticized for their lack of aesthetic indicators, which some consider to be an important social component of forestry. To provide a basis for the inclusion of aesthetic indicators in SFM frameworks, we used Delphi techniques to survey the beliefs and opinions of SFM and aesthetic experts. The three major reasons provided for the lack of aesthetic indicators were: a lack of aesthetic training amongst those designing criteria and indicators; a bias against aesthetics, which are often considered to be highly subjective; and the general omission of people with knowledge of aesthetics during the development of SFM standards. Based on the responses, we present 10 possible aesthetic indicators appropriate for international SFM standards, including 8 quantitative and 2 qualitative indicators. We also provide 18 other potential aesthetic indicators, which can be applied at various scales of SFM, ranging from local to national. These results should provide guidance to groups developing and revising criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management at various scales, from local to international.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author