Relevance of criteria and indicators for sustainable timber harvesting

For well-founded decisions in sustainable timber harvesting, it is important to know the preferences of the different stakeholders. The concept of sustainable timber harvesting is to incorporate economic, social, and environmental criteria in the selection, execution and assessment of harvesting operations. In a previous study, 33 criteria were identified by forest experts as relevant for evaluating sustainability. To assess the importance of these criteria, an online survey was conducted among Austrian stakeholders between April and May 2023, in which 610 people were invited to participate and which resulted in a response rate of 47%.

The survey participants were primarily male (94%), with an average age of 47 and an average of 20 years of work experience. The key criteria for sustainable harvesting that were unanimously mentioned by the stakeholders on the basis of a Likert scale, included occupational hazards, residual stand damage, loss of wood quality due to poor work performance, biomass regeneration, water erosion, noise exposure, soil rutting, physical workload, working conditions, and vibration exposure. These identified preferences will inform the development of a decision support model for sustainable timber harvesting using these criteria as input parameters.