Špela Pezdevšek Malovrh

Methods based on data envelopment analysis for deriving group priorities in analytic hierarchy process

In recent years, group decision making has become one of the important issues in multiple criteria decision making, and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is considered an appropriate method when dealing with this kind of problems. Many different approaches for attaining a group valuation in AHP have been developed. The applications most commonly employ the weighted geometric mean method. In the paper, we focus on the group AHP methods, which are based on the data envelopment analysis (DEA). First we discuss two methods for deriving a group priority vector: Wang and Chin’s DEA group method and Hosseinian etxa0al.’s DEA-WDGD. Further, we propose a new WGMDEA method and compare all three methods with the WGMM on theoretical examples and on a real case study. The objective of the case study is to examine the current state of forest owners’ cooperatives. An analysis of the influence of forest owners’ cooperatives on private forest management in Slovenia was put forward. The A’WOT analysis, which is a combined method of AHP and SWOT analysis, an approach for identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the object under consideration, was performed.

Private Forest Owner Typologies in Slovenia and Serbia: Targeting Private Forest Owner Groups for Policy Implementation

Forestry decision-makers in Slovenia and Serbia share common objectives: development of a more coherent policy for private forests and involvement of different ownership groups in policy deliberation and development, as well as increased management levels in private forests that are currently below their productive potential. Successful achievement of these objectives in both countries requires a range of policy tools. The research objective of this study was to identify and describe private forest owner types in Slovenia and Serbia based on various criteria (forest management objectives; participation in private forest owner associations; cooperation with other private forest owners and the public forest administration; performing forest harvesting activities) and to suggest a combination of policy instruments to target each private forest owner group. Surveys were conducted in Slovenia (nxa0=xa0322) and Serbia (nxa0=xa0248) on random samples of private forest owners. Survey data were analysed using a two-step cluster analysis. Four groups of private forest owners were identified in Slovenia: active (26.1xa0%), passive (33.2xa0%), multiobjective (18.6xa0%) and uninterested (22.0xa0%). Two were identified in Serbia: active (32.6xa0%) and multiobjective (67.4xa0%xa0). Existing policy instruments referring to private forests in Slovenia and Serbia are rather similar and formulated in the respective forest policy documents at the national level. However, there are no policy instruments in either country targeting specific private forest owner groups. Based on smart regulation as a specific conceptual approach, an appropriate mix of policy instruments is proposed, which includes various measures designed to target the identified private forest owner types.

Factors Affecting Harvesting Intensity in Small-Scale Private Forests in Slovenia

Among other factors, harvesting intensity in private forests depends on property, resource and forest owner characteristics. The research was conducted in Slovenia, a Central European country with very fragmented and small-scale forest property, a large number of owners and co-owners and a long tradition of sustainable forest management. In the nationwide study, data from the Land and Property Register and forest inventory database were used to build a logistic regression model to identify factors that influence harvesting intensity. The results of the model revealed that growing stock, share of conifers, share of forest area under regeneration, total size of forest property in owner- and co-ownership, parcel size and accessibility of the forest area to forest operations increase harvesting intensity. Slope, number and age of owners and co-owners, and skidding distance negatively influence harvesting intensity. The results can offer useful information for policy and decision makers for formulating policy as well as implementing the most suitable mix of policy instruments.

Decision support framework for evaluating the operational environment of forest bioenergy production and use: Case of four European countries.

Complex policy-making situations around bioenergy production and use require examination of the operational environment of the society and a participatory approach. This paper presents and demonstrates a three-phase decision-making framework for analysing the operational environment of strategies related to increased forest bioenergy targets. The framework is based on SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis and the Simple Multi-Attribute Rating Technique (SMART). Stakeholders of four case countries (Finland, Germany, Norway and Slovenia) defined the factors that affect the operational environments, classified in four pre-set categories (Forest Characteristics and Management, Policy Framework, Technology and Science, and Consumers and Society). The stakeholders participated in weighting of SWOT items for two future scenarios with SMART technique. The first scenario reflected the current 2020 targets (the Business-as-Usual scenario), and the second scenario contained a further increase in the targets (the Increase scenario). This framework can be applied to various problems of environmental management and also to other fields where public decision-making is combined with stakeholders engagement. The case results show that the greatest differences between the scenarios appear in Germany, indicating a notably negative outlook for the Increase scenario, while the smallest differences were found in Finland. Policy Framework was a highly rated category across the countries, mainly with respect to weaknesses and threats. Intensified forest bioenergy harvesting and utilization has potentially wide country-specific impacts which need to be anticipated and considered in national policies and public dialogue.

Willingness of Private Forest Owners to Supply Woody Biomass in Croatia

Renewable energy sources have received significant attention in European countries as a result of increasing dependence on energy imports and concerns over high prices of fuels and climate change. Although private forests in Croatia account for less than one quarter of all forests, they may play an important role in woody biomass energy production, due to their underutilized exploitation. The objective of this paper is to identify the willingness of private forest owners to supply woody biomass and to understand how this willingness is affected by certain owner, management and forest property characteristics. A survey conducted in Croatia in 2012 of a random sample of 350 private forest owners shows that almost half of them were willing to supply woody biomass. A random utility model was used to determine the factors influencing private forest owners’ willingness to supply woody biomass. The results showed that willingness to supply woody biomass was influenced by property size, management objectives (production of fuel wood for personal needs and using the forest for outdoor recreation), cooperation with other forest owners and owner age. In order to enhance woody biomass mobilization from private forests it is important to identify the owners who are willing to supply it and to provide them with financial and administrative support using a mix of developed forest policy instruments.