Many sets of criteria and indicators (C&I) of sustainable forest management have been developed around the world. This paper reports the first steps taken by CIFOR towards creating a generic list of powerful and useable C&I. A computer programme, CIMAT, was being developed to facilitate choices over C&I sets by future users. An international series of field tests of various C&I sets showed that social criteria were more difficult to measure and had less commonality among sites than policy or forest management C&I, while ecology C&I were the most standardised and straightforward. The authors suggested that social C&I required more research, as did issues of biodiversity, plantations and links between local and national levels of assessment