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Methods to monitor the sustainability of forest management on local to regional scales are currently being developed in Europe, based on Pan-European criteria. However, current approaches to indicator development have several shortcomings. First, they fail to integrate the links among indicators. Second, they do not address the factors giving rise to specific indicator values explicitly. Third, they select indicators with an emphasis on data availability or ease of measurement rather than on informational content. To overcome these problems, we propose using a modelling approach to indicator development. What modelling and indicator development have in common is that they both try to capture the essence of real, complex systems. In this paper, we present an initial attempt to develop indicators for the sustainable management of mountain forests, using a modelling approach. Key issues that make the …