MEASURING THE EFFICIENCY OF FOREST MANAGEMENT

In managing forests, the relative efficiency of management accomplishments should be evaluated to obtain a guideline for future planning. However, to evaluate whether a multiple-use forest is efficiently managed is very difficult because many outputs do not have market values. In this paper a model based on the principle of Pareto optimality is introduced for measuring the efficiency of forest management. The model is of a linear fractional program which can be converted to a linear program. The aggregate efficiency of a management unit can be separated into technical and scale efficiency to enable the manager to identify the sources of inefficiency. From the dual formulation of the linear program, the inefficient inputs and outputs can also be identified together with the amounts by which they can be improved. As an illustration, the model is applied to measuring the management efficiency of the 13 districts of the National forests of Taiwan, Republic of China. Surprisingly, the results perfectly explain a current proposal of the Taiwan Forestry Bureau.