Developing and evaluating strategies to increase the material utilisation rate of hardwoods: a hybrid policy Delphi-SWOT analysis

Abstract

The indigenous hardwoods in German forests have a substantial ability to store carbon, and forestry reconstruction measures are anticipated to result in an increase in availability of hardwood on the wood market. Despite this, its material usage is declining with over two thirds of the harvested quantity being used for energy production. This study aims to identify policy measures and promising strategies for increasing hardwood utilisation using a combined policy Delphi-SWOT approach with literature review undertaken to identify the barriers and driving factors for an increase in its material use. The results were then ranked by a panel of experts and used as basis for the SWOT analysis, which was then applied to an extended SWOT approach. The resulting strategies were then discussed by the panel and ranked further in the 2nd and 3rd Delphi round. After three Delphi rounds, three strategies and associated policy recommendations were ranked as most effective by the experts: innovative hardwood products including manufacturing processes, research transfer and lobbying. This study provides both strategic analyses and effective strategies to stimulate the production of hardwood-based products and ends with a concise description of these strategies and policy recommendations, which are benchmarked against current literature and best practise examples.

Laminated strand lumber (LSL) potential of Hungarian and Central European hardwoods: a review

“…Generally, there are few reports of SWOT analyses available for hardwood materials in the literature. However, some researchers still tried to create SWOT analyses on different wood-based products (Auer and Rauch 2021;Van Acker et al 2016). Therefore, SWOT analysis has been carried out for these hardwood-based LSL products.…”