Blockchain-based Governance for Social Welfare in the Forestry

Abstract

While the future must be aligned more ecologically, different intensive challenges arise for the society. We exemplify these challenges by the multi objectives of a forest, since it offers renewable resources, conserves biodiversity, acts as a carbon sink, and provides recreational functions in a simultaneous manner. We approach the forest management problem (FMP) by using multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) with diverging stakeholder preferences as input and social welfare across participating stakeholders as output. To reach social welfare, we focus on mechanism design to gather truthful stakeholder valuations. Hence, this research in progress presents an instantiation of the participatory MCDA in the context of forestry. The research objective is to examine how distributed ledger technologies (DLT) can help to implement the mechanism and to coordinate the participatory MCDA transparently and securely.