Operationalization of biological diversity as a decision objective in tactical forest planning

An approach for including biological diversity in calculations of multiobjective forest planning is described. This makes it possible to consider biodiversity as a decision objective among multiple objectives in tactical forest planning. Biodiversity is operationalized by decomposing it into measurable environmental components that describe its dimensions. The relative importance of the components is assessed via pairwise comparisons. The relationship between the value of the component and the overall biodiversity is estimated and described for each component as a subpriority function. The relationship can be nonlinear. A biodiversity index is calculated for each alternative forest plan based on the components and their weighting, the subpriority functions, and the predicted qualities of the forest area when implementing the plans. The approach is illustrated by a case study. Using this approach, the relationship between biodiversity and the other objective variables, as well as the effects of the components of biodiversity, can be analyzed numerically.