Forest communities: New frameworks for assessing sustainability

In both Canada and the United States, there has been a growing interest in the sustainability of forests and forest communities. policy makers and sci entists have attempted to understand how forest management practices can en hance or harm the future of such communities. Although many studies have hi storically used economic indicators as measures of community stability, mor e recently researchers have demonstrated that the relationship between comm unities and forests goes far beyond simple economic dependency. Thus, recen t frameworks for assessing forest communities have also addressed the need for broader social and institutional components. In this article, we briefl y review three of these recent concepts - community capacity, community wel l-being and community resiliency - and examine what each of these terms has to contribute to the assessment of forest communities.