Multiple criteria decision-making in forest planning: Recent results and current challenges

Abstract

Forest management is becoming a complex process that requires decision making involving economic, environmental and social criteria. This means that multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) approaches need to be used in many forestry contexts. This chapter aims at assessing the efforts undertaken over the last 30 years towards formulating and solving forest management problems from an MCDM perspective. The goal of the chapter is not to compile an exhaustive list of MCDM applications in forestry but to detect the areas within forest management in which MCDM approaches have proven to be more productive or have significant future potential.