Multiple criteria decision analysis with consideration to place-specific values in participatory forest planning

The combination of multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) and participatory planning is an approach that has been applied in complex planning situations where multiple criteria of very different natures are considered, and several stakeholders or social groups are involved. The spatial character of forest planning problems adds further to the complexity, because a large number of forest stands are to be assigned different treatments at different points in time. In addition, experience from participatory forest planning indicates that stakeholders may think about the forest in terms of place-specific values rather than in forest-wide terms. The objective of this study was to present an approach for including place-specific values in MCDA-based participatory forest planning and illustrate the approach by a case study where the objective was to choose a multipurpose forest plan for an area of urban forest in northern Sweden. Stakeholder values were identified in interviews, and maps were used to capture place-specific spatial values. The nonspatial and nonplace-specific spatial values were formulated as criteria and used to build an objective hierarchy describing the decision situation. The place-specific spatial values were included in the creation of a map showing zones of different silvicultural management classes, which was used as the basis for creation of forest plan alternatives in the subsequent process. The approach seemed to work well for capturing place-specific values, and the study indicates that formalized methods for including and evaluating place-specific values in participatory forest planning processes should be developed and tested further

Participatory forest planning and multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA)

With the industrial revolution, the human utilization of the forest took a new turn as wood became a commercial product (Östlund & Zackrisson 2000). Since then, economical considerations have pervaded the public perspective on forest and forestry. However, the awareness of the need for sustainability in the use of the forest resource has also grown, and during the last decades other values have entered the discussion and the practice of forestry. Today, sustainable forest management (SFM) where economical, ecological and social values are all satisfied, is a core element in the development of acceptable forest management practices. Public participation is strongly related to SFM. In some industrialized countries, e.g. Canada, demands for participation in natural resource management have subsequently been incorporated into the legislation (Chambers and Beckley 2003), but in most countries there is no legal demand for participation. In Sweden for example, the only demand for participation in the Forestry Act is consultation before clear cutting in certain areas of reindeer herding. Forest certification, which is now covering extensive areas in several countries, plays an interesting role in the promotion of SFM. However, its main purpose is not public participation and the integration of social values into forestry (Angelstam et al. 2004). Internationally, there is the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters. This convention has been ratified by Sweden amongst other countries, but it is difficult to make a strict interpretation of it. New approaches and methods are obviously needed in forest management planning to incorporate forest values other than timber production and to help solve conflicts of interest. There have been some attempts made by different types of projects. The Canadian Model Forest concept promotes participation in the work for SFM, and has been tried out in Sweden in the Vilhelmina Model Forest project (Svensson et al. 2004). Some of the LIFE projects sponsored by the European Union are also applications of participation with SFM as the objective; the project “Local Participation in Sustainable Forest Management based on Landscape Analysis” is a Swedish example of a LIFE project sponsored by the European Union (http://www.svo.se/minskog/templates/svo_se_vanlig.asp?id=8001, 2007-01-12). A potentially powerful tool in the work for sustainable forest management (SFM) and participation is multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA), an approach which can make it possible to handle complex decision situations involving conflicting interests and several stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to clarify concepts related to participation and present methods that are applicable in participatory planning. More specifically the following questions will be dealt with: • What is meant by participation? What methods and techniques are available to participatory planning processes? • What is MCDA and what phases do this approach require? In order to illuminate the state of art of participatory planning in forestry, an analysis of a number of case studies is presented

A framework for defining weights of decision makers in group decision-making, using consistency between different multicriteria weighting methods

Most forest operations are complex problems that require the weights of relevant criteria - representing trade-offs between various economic, ecological, and social aspects of the problem - to be defined. Usually this is done by using multicriteria weighting method(s) in a group (participatory) context in order to include different opinions and to minimize risk of poor individual judgments. Furthermore, in group decision-making, the weights of decision makers (DMs) must be defined. However, no consensus exists on the best way to determine related weights assigned to DMs. For that purpose, we propose the consistency-based group decision-making framework (CGDF), which uses the expertise of a DM to weight the responses of the DM when deriving an overall group decision. The novel part of CGDF is the inter-weights consistency method (ICM) for evaluating the expertise of a DM based on the consistency of the weights the DM assigns to different criteria using different multicriteria weighting methods. We demonstrate the utility of ICM and CGDF by applying them to a decision-making problem from Swedish forest operations - defining weights of criteria relevant for designing the machine-trail network for driving in the forest terrain

Participatory forest planning and Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA)

With the industrial revolution, the human utilization of the forest took a new turn as wood became a commercial product (Östlund & Zackrisson 2000). Since then, economical considerations have pervaded the public perspective on forest and forestry. However, the awareness of the need for sustainability in the use of the forest resource has also grown, and during the last decades other values have entered the discussion and the practice of forestry. Today, sustainable forest management (SFM) where economical, ecological and social values are all satisfied, is a core element in the development of acceptable forest management practices. Public participation is strongly related to SFM. In some industrialized countries, e.g. Canada, demands for participation in natural resource management have subsequently been incorporated into the legislation (Chambers and Beckley 2003), but in most countries there is no legal demand for participation. In Sweden for example, the only demand for participation in the Forestry Act is consultation before clear cutting in certain areas of reindeer herding. Forest certification, which is now covering extensive areas in several countries, plays an interesting role in the promotion of SFM. However, its main purpose is not public participation and the integration of social values into forestry (Angelstam et al. 2004). Internationally, there is the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters. This convention has been ratified by Sweden amongst other countries, but it is difficult to make a strict interpretation of it. New approaches and methods are obviously needed in forest management planning to incorporate forest values other than timber production and to help solve conflicts of interest. There have been some attempts made by different types of projects. The Canadian Model Forest concept promotes participation in the work for SFM, and has been tried out in Sweden in the Vilhelmina Model Forest project (Svensson et al. 2004). Some of the LIFE projects sponsored by the European Union are also applications of participation with SFM as the objective; the project “Local Participation in Sustainable Forest Management based on Landscape Analysis” is a Swedish example of a LIFE project sponsored by the European Union (http://www.svo.se/minskog/templates/svo_se_vanlig.asp?id=8001, 2007-01-12). A potentially powerful tool in the work for sustainable forest management (SFM) and participation is multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA), an approach which can make it possible to handle complex decision situations involving conflicting interests and several stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to clarify concepts related to participation and present methods that are applicable in participatory planning. More specifically the following questions will be dealt with: • What is meant by participation? What methods and techniques are available to participatory planning processes? • What is MCDA and what phases do this approach require? In order to illuminate the state of art of participatory planning in forestry, an analysis of a number of case studies is presented

Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) in Forest Operations – an Introductional Review

Decision making in forestry is very complex and requires consideration of trade-offs among economic, environmental, and social criteria. Different multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods have been developed for structuring and exploring the decision-making process of such problems. Although MCDA methods are often used for forest management problems, they are rarely used for forest operation problems. This indicates that scholars and practitioners working with forest operations are either unaware of MCDA methods, or see no benefit in using these methods. Therefore, the prime objective of this review was to make MCDA methods more intelligible (compared with current level of understanding) to novice users within the field of forest operations. For that purpose, basic ideas as well as the strengths and limitations of selected MCDA methods are presented. The second objective was to review applications of MCDA methods in forest operations. The review showed that MCDA applications are suitable for forest operation problems on all three planning levels – strategic, tactical, and operational – but with least use on the operational level. This is attributed to: 1) limited availability of temporally relevant and correct data, 2) lack of time (execution of MCDA methods is time consuming), and 3) many operational planning problems are solved with regards to an economic criterion, with other criteria serving more as frames. However, with increased importance of environmental and social aspects, incorporating MCDA methods into the decision-making process on the operational planning horizon (e.g., by developing MCDAbased guidelines for forestry work) is essential

Mångbruk av skog – om att utveckla skogens mervärden

Mångbruk av skog är ingen ny företeelse i Sverige. Skogen har alltid på olika sätt haft betydelse för människors försörjning. Dagens definition av mångbruk är att skogen används för flera olika syften (t.ex. skogsbruk, naturturism, rennäring, naturvård m.m.) som kan vara kommersiella eller icke-kommersiella. Inom ramen för det nationella skogsprogrammet har frågan om mångbrukets outnyttjade potential aktualiserats. Beroende på vem eller vilka man frågar, och vilken erfarenhet de har av mångbruk, finns det emellertid olika uppfattningar om mångbrukets potential att skapa fler jobb och hållbar tillväxt i hela landet. I den här rapporten syntetiserar vi kunskap om mångbruk av skog baserat på tidigare och nu genomförda studier och kartlägger och analyserar förutsättningarna för att bedriva mångbruk av skog. Utifrån studiens frågeställningar har vi kommit fram till följande slutsatser: • Naturturism är en primär form av mångbruk med utvecklingspotential för jobbskapande på landsbygden. • Även vidareförädling av olika råvaror och äventyrsbaserade aktiviteter har potential att utvecklas inom ramen för mångbruk. • En väl fungerande samhällsinfrastruktur är en viktig förutsättning för alla former av mångbruk som bygger på att verksamheten ska attrahera besökare. • Icke-kommersiella former mångbruk är en självklarhet för många skogsägare. Man anger självhushållning (av främst viltkött, bär och svamp) samt rekreationsbefrämjande åtgärder (som t. ex. att ordna en grillplats för lokalbefolkningen). • Många skogsägare har inte intresse av att utveckla mångbruk på sin mark, men ställer sig ofta positiva till att andra gör det. • Allemansrätten är en central förutsättning för mångbruk, men det är viktigt att upprätta formella avtal vid kommersiell verksamhet på annans mark. • Mångbruk kan ofta bedrivas i skogen oavsett hur den sköts, även om det finns exempel där särskilt trakthyggesbruk kan upplevas som störande. • Det finns potential att utveckla mångbruk i anslutning till skyddade områden - på så sätt skulle mångbruk kunna fungera som en brygga mellan att bruka och bevara skogslandskapet. • Genom att skapa dialogplattformar som möjliggör för olika aktörer att få en holistisk bild av skogslandskapet och dess nyttjande kan olika mångbruksverksamheter bättre utvecklas både parallellt och integrerat. • Mångbrukets utmaningar liknar andra småföretagares utmaningar vad gäller efterlevnaden av komplicerade regelverk som är anpassade till mer storskaliga företag vad gäller till exempel livsmedelshantering. • Därutöver innebär mångbrukets lokalisering till glesbygd att det finns utmaningar med att bedriva säsongsbunden verksamhet och svårigheter med att finna arbetskraft. Dagens skogspolitik främjar i princip mångbruk, men i studierna som denna rapport bygger på framkommer att mångbruksfrågan är sektorsövergripande och att insatser inom exempelvis närings- och landsbygdspolitiken också behövs för att nå mångbrukets fulla potential. Följande slutsatser från rapporten utgör förslag till hur genomförandet av det nationella skogsprogrammets vision och målet “Mångbruk av skog för fler jobb och hållbar tillväxt i hela landet” kan realiseras, och hur målen “Ökad sysselsättning”, “Stärkt hållbar tillväxt” och “Landsbygdsutveckling med beaktande av skogens sociala värden” kan uppnås: • Utveckla politik och styrning för mångbruk inom ramen för hållbar landsbygdsutveckling. • Stärk landsbygdens infrastruktur för att möjliggöra mångbruk av skog. • Etablera arenor för samverkan och erfarenhetsutbyte rörande mångbruk. • Sprid kunskap om mångbruk och satsa på entreprenörskap. • Utveckla former för avtal mellan mångFoto: Maria Groth/Mostphotos bruksentreprenörer, markägare och andra rättighetsinnehavare. • Se över om skyddade områden kan öppnas upp för mångbruk. • Förenkla regelverk för landsbygdsföretagande. • Se över möjligheterna till riktade ekonomiska stöd till mångbrukare på landsbygden

Decision support systems in forest management: requirements from a participatory planning perspective

Participatory approaches and computerised tools such as decision support systems (DSS) represent conflicting tendencies in state-of the-art sustainable forest management. As a result, there may be considerable tension between these two developments in practice. The objective of this paper is to explore how participatory approaches and DSS could be brought together to improve planning processes and to explore how DSS could be adapted in their use or combined with other tools to enable successful participatory planning. From a review of the literature, we identified criteria related to successful participatory planning. From these criteria, we selected those a DSS can influence and created a short list of the criteria that could be used to evaluate participatory processes where DSS are applied. The evaluation criteria with particular relevance for DSS that we identified are as follows: fairness, opportunity to influence outcome, quality and selection of information, cost-effectiveness, challenging status quo and fostering creative thinking, structured decision-making process, transparency, and independence and neutrality of process. We also scrutinised existing forest DSS and identified features that may enable DSS to address these criteria. The features of DSS we identified that may support participatory processes are as follows: group decision support, possibilities to include other values than timber production, flexibility of system to include non-traditional forest data and management options, and multi-criteria decision analysis tools. We argue that the DSS to be used should be assessed to clarify, how it can be used in the specific planning situation and how it should be complemented with other available and non-computerised tool

Analysis of decision-making processes for strategic technology investments in Swedish large-scale forestry

Technological development gives forest companies opportunities to maintain competitiveness in the highly cost-sensitive market for forest products. However, no previous studies have examined the technological development decisions made by forest companies or the support tools used when making them. We therefore aimed to describe and analyze 1) the processes used when making such decisions, 2) the associated decision situations, and 3) the use of and need for decision sup-port tools in these processes, with a harwarder concept as case. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with respondents from six forestry organizations. Two theoretical frameworks were used to analyze the interviews, one for unstructured decision processes and one for decision situations. The respondents' descriptions of their decision processes were consistent with those observed in other industries, and it was shown that decision-making could potentially be improved by invest-ing more resources into diagnosing the problem at hand. The main objective in decision-making was to maximize economic criteria while satisfying threshold requirements relating to criteria such as operator well-being, soil rutting, and wood value. When facing large uncertainties, inter-viewees preferred to gather data through operational trials and/or scientific studies. If confronted with large uncertainties that could not be reduced, they proceeded with development only if the potential gains exceeded the estimated uncertainties, and implemented innovations in a stepwise manner. These results indicate a need for greater use of existing decision-support tools such as problem-structuring methods to enable more precise diagnoses, simulations to better understand new innovations, and optimization to better evaluate their theoretical large-scale potential

Bringing "Climate-Smart Forestry" Down to the Local Level-Identifying Barriers, Pathways and Indicators for Its Implementation in Practice

The theoretical concept of "climate-smart forestry" aims to integrate climate change mitigation and adaptation to maintain and enhance forests' contributions to people and global agendas. We carried out two local transdisciplinary collaboration processes with the aim of developing local articulations of climate-smart forestry and to identify barriers, pathways and indicators to applying it in practice. During workshops in northern and southern Sweden, local stakeholders described how they would like forests to be managed, considering their past experiences, future visions and climate change. As a result, the stakeholders framed climate-smart forestry as active and diverse management towards multiple goals. They identified several conditions that could act both as barriers and pathways for its implementation in practice, such as value chains for forest products and services, local knowledge and experiences of different management alternatives, and the management of ungulates. Based on the workshop material, a total of 39 indicators for climate-smart forestry were identified, of which six were novel indicators adding to the existing literature. Our results emphasize the importance of understanding the local perspectives to promote climate-smart forestry practices across Europe. We also suggest how the concept of climate-smart forestry can be further developed, through the interplay between theory and practice