**3.1 Final set of C&I**

During the workshops, the generic set was left almost unmodified. Strictly speaking no elements were added and two indicators were eliminated at the provincial level workshop. In all group discussions the villagers eliminated the same 12 indicators, including the 5 genetic indicators (compare Tab. 3a and 3b). The group discussions led to the addition of 2 new indicators. Generally the villagers had the same perceptions for eliminating and keeping indicators: 86 % of the indicators had over 80 % of similar answers (either 0 or 1) in the villages (Tab. 2).


Table 2. Similarity in perceptions between villages.

The final set was composed out of 15 indicators under 6 criteria and 2 principles (Tab. 3a and 3b).

One special case was decided to remain included in the final version of the C&I set, Indicator *"1.3.4 Minimization of soil degradation":* This indicator was accepted by 100 % of experts, special use and production forest villages, and rejected by three out of four protection forest villages. Dinh Hoa District is part of the mountainous regions of Vietnam which cover 3/4th of the country, having a complex topography and steep slopes (Werger and Nghia, 2006). Soil degradation and erosion is generally a great risk in the northern mountainous regions of Vietnam (Pomel et al., 2007; Thao, 2001). Land erosion has been identified to be a key point impacting many elements which influence farming systems (like water quality / quantity and soil fertility) thus causing crop yield reduction leading to a general income loss (Thao, 2001; Pomel et al., 2007). Though forests are the main subject of this study plus forests represent the land use option with the smallest erosion rate in Northern Vietnam (Pomel et al., 2007) the indicator was kept.


### **Principle 1 : Ecosystem integrity is maintained**

210 Sustainable Forest Management – Case Studies

The cluster analysis evaluates the similarities of perceptions among the stakeholders based on all pairs at once, but it does not allow drawing conclusions about the analogy of the perceptions between stakeholders. In fact, a cluster can indicate a high similarity within its subjects, and still display significant differences among them when tested pair wise. Finally two hypotheses were tested. The first hypothesis was the similarity of perceptions between the villages and the experts. This test is relevant because experts play a decisional role in law and policy making although the results are implemented at local level. The second test concerned the similarity of perceptions between villages managing different forest use types. The data indicating the absence or presence of an indicator against a consolidated reference list of indicators is of binary character. Thus, the Phi coefficient [mean square contingency coefficient] was calculated (Janssen and Laatz, 2010). To test the significance of this Phi coefficient, the Pearson Chi-square was applied if the expected cell frequencies were

5, otherwise the Fisher exact probability test was used (Janssen and Laatz, 2010; Sachs,

*H0: Perceptions of X and Y are not associated H1: Perceptions of X and Y are associated*  If there is no association between variables, the answers of stakeholders are independent,

Accordingly, if there is an association between variables, the answers are dependent,

During the workshops, the generic set was left almost unmodified. Strictly speaking no elements were added and two indicators were eliminated at the provincial level workshop. In all group discussions the villagers eliminated the same 12 indicators, including the 5 genetic indicators (compare Tab. 3a and 3b). The group discussions led to the addition of 2 new indicators. Generally the villagers had the same perceptions for eliminating and keeping indicators: 86 % of the indicators had over 80 % of similar answers (either 0 or 1) in

**Part of indicators (%) Number of different perceptions Similarity (%)** 

67 0 100 15 1 92 4 2 83 11 3 75 4 5 58

2002), both with a significance level of = 0,05. The hypotheses were:

meaning that the C&I sets are NOT similar: Perceptions of X Perceptions of Y.

meaning that the C&I sets ARE similar: Perceptions of X = Perceptions of Y.

**2.3.3 Hypotheses testing** 

all -

**3. Results** 

**3.1 Final set of C&I** 

the villages (Tab. 2).

Total = 100

Table 2. Similarity in perceptions between villages.

Table 3. a. Final Indicator selection. Principle 1: Ecosystem integrity is maintained.
