Regional forest planning using multiobjective programming and goal programming

Abstract

This paper aims to determine alternative tree species compositions in a geographical region. Sustainable forest management has become increasingly complex, involving competing uses and stakeholders. In order to measure forest sustainability a system of Pan-European indicators has been elaborated. Through pairwise comparison matrices we determine the relative importance assigned by each stakeholder to each criterion. We, then, formulate several multiobjective programming models, one for each stakeholder, whose solutions are the planning options preferred by the corresponding stakeholder. In order to obtain a consensus option, we formulate a GP model in which: a the aspiration level of each indicator is the weighted sum of the values achieved in each option, considering the relative importance of the stakeholders b the weight of each criterion is the weighted sum of the weights proposed for each stakeholder, according to their relative importance. We apply our procedure to a province of Spain.