Local Level Indicators Program
fRI Research established the Local level Indicators Program in 1997 to assess national criteria for sustainable forest management at a local level. The program ran until 2008.
The Canadian Council of Forest Ministers earlier had identified six prerequisite “national criteria” of sustainable forest management, which required local acceptance and adoption to be effective. In response, the Canadian Model Forest Program decided to develop and report local indicators of these criteria. Additionally, fRI Research agreed to identify local goals and to determine indicators that measured performance against the goals. In brief, fRI Research established the Local level Indicators Program to assess the national criteria at a local level. The program gained enough scientific information with which to measure and report many local indicators.
Data for the Local Level Indicators Project was generally collected by agencies with land and resource management responsibilities, such as Jasper National Park, Hinton Wood Products (A division of West Fraser Mills Ltd.), and Alberta Sustainable Resource Development.
The LLI Program reported local indicators from within the entire fRI Research land base. By measuring and monitoring these indicators over time plus updating reports, the LLI Program was able to reveal changes and trends as they occurred. These changes and trends measured progress toward local and national sustainable forest management.