Forest and Society’s Welfare: Impact Assessment in Lithuania

• Main Authors: Stasys Mizaras, Diana Lukmine
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-05-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: welfare of society index; forest impact assessment; forest contribution coefficient
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/10/5598

Effective formation and implementation of forest policy can only be achieved with orientation to the most important goal—increasing society’s welfare. The global problem is, at present, that the impact of forests on society welfare indexes have not been identified. The aim of the study is to design an assessment model and assess the impact of Lithuanian forests on the society welfare index. The impact of forests was determined by multiplying the country’s welfare of society index by the forest contribution coefficient. In this study, to assess the index of the welfare of Lithuanian society, a five-dimensional model with 16 indicators was applied. The study is based on the Eurostat database and on Lithuanian forestry statistics. The Lithuanian welfare of society index calculated according to the model was 51.4% and the contribution of forests in this index was 3.9%. It represented 7.6% of the index of the welfare of society. Forests have the greatest impact in the environmental dimension, according to the assessment results.