{"id":115457,"date":"2026-11-11T16:36:37","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T15:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/industry-science.com\/?post_type=article&p=115457"},"modified":"2026-11-11T16:38:18","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T15:38:18","slug":"blockchain-based-governance-for-social-welfare-in-the-forestry","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/industry-science.com\/en\/articles\/blockchain-based-governance-for-social-welfare-in-the-forestry\/","title":{"rendered":"Blockchain-based Governance for Social Welfare in the Forestry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Abstract<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the future must be aligned more ecologically, different intensive chal-lenges arise for the society. We exemplify these challenges by the multi objec-tives of a forest, since it offers renewable resources, conserves biodiversity, acts \u00a0as a carbon sink, and provides recreational functions in a simultaneous manner. \u00a0We approach the forest management problem (FMP) by using multi-criteria de-cision analysis (MCDA) with diverging stakeholder preferences as input and \u00a0social welfare across participating stakeholders as output. To reach social wel-fare, we focus on mechanism design to gather truthful stakeholder valuations. \u00a0Hence, this research in progress presents an instantiation of the participatory \u00a0MCDA in the context of forestry. The research objective is to examine how dis-tributed ledger technologies (DLT) can help to implement the mechanism and \u00a0to coordinate the participatory MCDA transparently and securely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The forest is a complex system that offers several ecological, economical, and social  services [1], while the demand for these services varies greatly and depends on pref-erences of heterogeneous stakeholders [2]. Involvement of stakeholders in the plan-ning process and exchanging information transparently [3], binding, reliable, and  transparent participation [4, 5] and similar activities promise to increase public com-mitment, the acceptance of decisions, and might help to reduce distrust between par-ties involved [6].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While stakeholder preferences diverge in forestry and their focus, besides others, is \u00a0on timber harvesting, recreation, water supply, or biodiversity conversion, it often-times results in multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA). MCDA itself is a powerful \u00a0methodology to incorporate diverging preferences, to solve such multi-objective prob-lems and has therefore been proven to be a valuable methodology in the forestry [7] \u00a0over the last three decades [3]. Many MCDA approaches were combined with group \u00a0decision-making [8], which have also been applied in public participation for the \u00a0forestry [9] (in the following pMCDA). Today\u2019s forest decision making usually follows a top-down principle, i.e., the forest decision power distribution is quite concen-trated (e.g., by the forest owner), while other stakeholders remain affected by, but are \u00a0not involved in forest decision making. Our assumption is therefore that forest man-agement must be more aligned to the overall interests to take full effect for the socie-ty. Consequently, we build on this research with the question on how to reach social \u00a0welfare by means of pMCDA. For this purpose, we show that distributed ledger tech-nologies (DLT, also known as blockchain) can help to reach social welfare (by using \u00a0mechanism design theory (MDT) [10]) and to coordinate the pMCDA, since it is \u00a0capable to exercise the role of a trusted third party (TTP). Although DLT was initially \u00a0discussed with cryptocurrencies, nowadays applications reach from voting systems \u00a0[11] to digital organizations [12], partly positioned in the field of cryptoeconomics. \u00a0Additionally, DLT-based governance is gaining popularity [13, 14] and is also dis-cussed in bioeconomy [15, 16]. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the steps of design science research (DSR) [17], we first put a problem  formulation and motivate it by describing the current situation in Germany. After that,  we derive solution objectives for an IT artefact in a requirement-driven manner and  conclude our research in progress (RIP) with further research steps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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