@article{Rantala:199811,
      recid = {199811},
      author = {Rantala, M. and Hujala, T. and Kurttila, M.},
      title = {Assessing the socio-cultural impacts of biodiversity  cooperation networks of the METSO programme},
      journal = {Scandinavian Forest Economics: Proceedings of the Biennial  Meeting of the Scandinavian Society of Forest Economics},
      address = {2012-05},
      number = {1333-2016-103817},
      pages = {2},
      year = {2012},
      abstract = {To safeguard overall sustainability in forest conservation  it is necessary to consider ecological,
economic, social,  and cultural viewpoints simultaneously. However,  particularly the sociocultural
aspects are difficult to  measure and thus often poorly considered. Furthermore,  practical
decision-making requires that sustainability  assessments are as easy and simple as possible. This
study  sought to develop and test a practically feasible procedure  for measuring and monitoring
the socio-cultural impacts of  the biodiversity cooperation networks within the  Forest
Biodiversity Programme METSO. Fundamentally, the  procedure falls within a multi-criteria
decision support  (MCDS) framework. First, a literature review helped to  select and
operationalize a set of 10 criteria and 25  indicators. Second, empirical data for the indicators
were  gathered from seven cooperation networks in November 2010  and January 2012 with
email questionnaires. Applying the  indicator data to an additive utility model  yielded
cumulative utility scores for all networks and for  both operational years. According to the
results,  improvements from 2010 to 2011 took place particularly  within the indicator
“Achievement of innovation and new  operation models”. Generally, the best  performances
appeared under the criterion “Acceptability”.  The high (positive) total socio-cultural impacts can
be  achieved through different strategies: by gathering  sub-utility from all criteria with rather
equal weights or  by concentrating on a few locally important criteria with  higher weights. The
presented procedure enables  longitudinal monitoring of socio-cultural sustainability,  which is
beneficial, because some outcomes of actions  appear with a delay. The method may help to
compare the  networks’ sub-utility distributions, i.e., performance  profiles, which provides
valuable information for  policy-makers. However, it is noteworthy that some  indicators rely on
subjective expert judgements, which is  why direct comparisons between networks should be
done with  caution. Following task is to link or merge the monitoring  of socio-cultural impacts
with other dimensions of  sustainability.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/199811},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.199811},
}