Evaluation of the Forest Quantity, Quality and Management through Gray Relational Analysis Method

Abstract

Forests cover 30 per cent of the Earth’s land surface, almost four billion hectares. They are necessary to sustain human health, economic growth and the environment. Also, approximately 25 per cent of the global population depends on forests for food and work. The world population is expected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050. Therefore, there needs to be quick action at all levels to make sure that forests are managed in a way that is good for the environment and our way of life in the future. The Sustainable Forest Management Goals are included in the major headings of Sustainable Development Goals and the United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests 2017–2030. The data for the worldwide and six geographical areas were assessed using the Gray Relational Analysis (GRA) approach, which is one of the Multi-Criteria Decision Making methodologies. The major goal of the study is to use the GRA mathematical approach to assess data from 6 geographical areas, totalling 245 regions and nations, and 236 countries and regions worldwide. The second purpose is to contribute to the existing literature by expanding the geographical scope, number of indicators, and the time period covered by the study. The study also aims to provide information on new forest quality and management technologies, as well as the change of geographical areas over 30 years. South America consistently comes out on top in interregional comparisons. On the other hand, Oceania ranks last in the rankings. While the scores for 1990 increased markedly for all regions and worldwide in 2000, the performance values for the years 2000, 2010 and 2020 are fairly close to each other. The findings and methods of this study are aimed to be a useful resource for future researchers and policymakers.