Forest Estates/Organisational Units Ranking Model - The MRG Model

Sa？etak Background and Purpose: The fact that new organizational concepts require comparison and ranking of some business entities, implies the analogy that, in forestry, ranking should create the basis for differentiation of Forest Estates (FE) (seen as profit centers) according to their capability to allocate funds from rent for the utilization of forests and forest land. In this sense, it was necessary to determine the basic criteria and variables, and then to create the model for FE ranking on the basis of ecological and production potentials, and business results (economic indicators). The main idea was to create a model that can be used primarily by forest owners (which are, in certain countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, and Montenegro, mainly governments) and by public forest enterprises. The proposed models may serve to all other scientific, professional, research and other institutions, as the starting point for further research and as suggestions for possible improvements of the proposed solutions. Materials and Methods: The research was carried out within the project "Differential rent in the Republic of Srpska forestry". Total sample for the survey was 44 interviewed parties, with 118 questionnaires filled in. The methods of classification, content analysis, desk research, analysis, synthesis and comparison were used. In the concrete application of the Forest Estates/Organisational Units Ranking Model (hereinafter MRG Model; Model rangiranja ？umskih gazdinstava, in Bosnian), the following methods were used: brainstorming, focus groups, survey, desk research method, Pareto analysis, modelling and induction. The statistical methods used were descriptive statistics and rank correlation. By using these methods and by combining them, a new model for forest estates ranking was created. Different input data and variables that refer to economic and natural indicators were used for ranking, all in accordance with the values for areas for which the ranking was carried out. Results: The main results are used for defining and proposal of the new model for forests estates ranking, i.e. the MRG Model. This model includes the following steps: (1) Survey, (2) Selection and scoring of specific variables, (3) Determining the intervals for specific variables, (4) Ranking of forest estates, and (5) Validation and rank correlation. This paper presented the algorithm of implementation of specific steps within the MRG Model, together with all activities that need to be implemented in order to perform forest estates ranking. It is necessary