Evaluation of sustainable forest and air quality management and the current situation in Europe through operation research methods

Forests cover 30 percent of the Earth&rsquo
s land surface, almost four billion hectares, and they are necessary to sustain human health, economic growth, and environmental health. Approximately 25 percent of the global population depends on forests for food and work. The world population is expected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050. Therefore, there is a need for urgent action plans at all levels to ensure sustainable forest management and policy collaboration among all stakeholders, in order for forests to continue to serve our ecosystem and life in the future. The study compares 30 countries using 15 indicators related to forest and air quality. This was performed with TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) and VIKOR (VIseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje, meaning Multi-Criteria Optimization and Compromise Solution), which are among the most used multi-criteria decision-making methods in the literature. According to the analysis results, Denmark, Luxembourg, Lithuania, and Germany are the best performing countries in terms of indicators, whereas Slovakia, Estonia, Turkey, Latvia, Chile, and Canada are the worst performing. The paper aims to present the current situation of some developed and developing countries and compare them to each other in terms of forest and air quality indicators. In addition, the article aims to inform all stakeholders and raise awareness to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Global Forest Goals of the United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests 2017&ndash
2030 targets.