Supporting policy decision makers in the establishment of forest plantations, using SWOT analysis and AHPs analysis. A case study in Tocantins (Brazil)

Following the increased extension of forest plantations in Brazil, new challenges for landowners, for- Received 30 April 2015 est technicians and policy and decision makers have emerged in order to ensure the provision of the Received in revised form 19 February 2016 ecosystem goods and services. Nevertheless, fire represents one of the most important limited factors Accepted 10 March 2016 of forest plantation growth and production in Brazil, especially in the Cerrado biome. This work focuses on the evaluation of the priority of the variables that landowners take into account during forest planta- Keywords: tion establishment. The combined use ofSWOT analysis and Analytic Hierarchical Process facilitates the Forest plantation efficiency priority ranking, allowing theassessment of the variables regarding fire-related aspects. The study high- Analytic hierarchical process lights thatlandowners recognize fire as a hindering factor for forest plantation production adoptingsome Fire preventative actions, even though these are poorly organized and rathermade by default.Improving the Cerrado awareness of landowners, promoting the local market of forest productions, and reducing costs for plan- Ecosystem services tationestablishment represent themain challenges highlighted in this study. Thecombinedmethodology applied represents a helpful tool for decision makers, offering them the possibility to assess the current gaps in plantation establishment with a particular focus on fire-related aspects.