Measuring the social performance of forest management

Abstract Forests produce several types of benefits to both forest landowners and society. The social benefit private forestry is equal plus positive externalities minus negative externalities. This study developed alternative metrics for the evaluation management. Forest management was assessed in terms five criteria: economic, socio-cultural, environmental ecological performance resilience ecosystem. Each criterion described with three numerical indicators. Alternative indices were calculated from indicator values using methods multi-criteria decision making. It concluded that based on multiplicative Cobb–Douglas utility function might be most recommendable when should a balanced combination different ecosystem services. When used compare silvicultural systems their performance, continuous cover ranked better than even-aged improved it aimed at increasing share mixed stands broadleaf species. Maximizing net present value (NPV) 1% discount rate led maximizing NPV 4% rate.