Data Envelopment Analysis in evaluation of the forest districts efficiency

The aim of this paper was to evaluate the financial and economic resources efficiency of forest districts in the years 2008-2012 using a nonparametric approach of the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). DEA is a linear programming based method for evaluating the performance of comparable production units such as firms. The relative efficiency of compared forest districts is calculated with the Variable Returns to Scale (VRS) model. Although the method is already extensively applied in many areas of economics, its use in forestry remains limited. We studied 110 forest districts from Wroclaw, Katowice, Krakow and Krosno regional directorates of the State Forests. The research was conducted in groups of forest districts according to the similar forest site type, which ensured the homogeneity of the units and the comparability of research results. Two categories of the forest districts were identified: 'lowland' and 'upland-mountain' ones. The study covered selection of input (efforts) and output (results) variables as well as selection of appropriate DEA model, which were used to evaluate technical efficiency of the forest districts. Within the so-called model of economic resources they were quantified in technical units, whereas in a financial model - in value terms. The research shows differences in the use of economic and financial resources by the analyzed forest districts. The 'lowland' were more effective than 'upland-mountain' ones both in terms of the use of the financial and economic resources. Average relative efficiency in a financial model for the 'lowland' forest districts amounts to 0.896, while for the 'upland-mountain' ones to - 0.839. In economic resources model this parameter equals 0.853 and 0.823, respectively. The DEA method may be an alternative or complementary to other methods of evaluation of the forest district efficiency. Any attempt of such analysis may be very valuable support in the forest management.