Forest management optimisation models when carbon captured is considered: a goal programming approach

Nowadays, the need to incorporate the carbon captured by the forest ecosystems as a complementary objective into the corresponding management optimisation models is accepted. This paper proposes an approach, based upon goal programming that let us undertake this task in a very efficient manner. The models derived from the proposed approach are simple in computational terms and the corresponding solutions can be interpreted in utility terms. All the theoretical aspects of this paper are applied to the Spanish forest “Pinar de Navafrı́a” located in the mountains of “Sierra de Guadarrama” near Madrid. The results reveal the marked difficulty in obtaining from an economic and forestry viewpoint good harvest schedules compatible with high levels of carbon captured.