The Place of AHP Method among the Multi-criteria Decision Making Methods in Forest Management

As the name implies, Multi-criteria decision making methods (MCDM) are decision making tools that capable the selection of the most preferred choice in a context where several criteria apply simultaneously. The primary purpose of this study is to examine the status of MCDM in forest management. The study also aims to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each of the MCDM methods. In this research the most important criteria for the evaluating of MCDM were determined. Also the most MCDM methods were selected according to a team of forest management experts. AHP, FAHP, ANP, TOPSIS, VIKOR, WSM, DEA, Voting methods, PROMETHEE and ELECTRE were selected for MCDM in forest management and ease of using the method, easily interpreted parameters, ease of understanding the results, ability of having detailed sensitivity analysis, ability of using graphical design model, ability of the team decision support, ability of considering various constraints, accuracy in determining the results and velocity in the use of decision making method were determined as criteria for evaluation of MCDM methods. In the second phase of the research, experts weighted the MCDM methods relative to criteria for evaluating of MCDM methods with Likert scale. According to all criteria, AHP among the study methods was the optimal choice for decision making in forest management. Finally, a SWOT analysis was performed for better understanding of the results. The result showed that AHP method was not the ideal multi-criteria optimization method. In other words, this method had some weaknesses. Most of the weaknesses were related to the use of experts. In case of non-professional experts in pairwise comparisons, weaknesses points were highlighted in using AHP.