The forest roads? Environmental Suitability based on the Multi Criteria Evaluation (MCE) Method and the contribution to the sustainable development

The need for the ?Sustainable Development? and at the same time the protection and preservation of the available natural assets has become a global concern. Forests constitute vulnerable ecosystems that change at great speed. In most of the occasions the change is downgrading. The right management of natural resources is the unique solution for the achievement of sustainable development. However, sustainable management of forests must be achieved with the respect and protection of nature and landscape. Sustainable management of forest resources can only be achieved through a well-organized road network compatible with the natural environment. This paper describes the forest roads? Environmental Suitability based on the Multi Criteria Evaluation (MCE) Method. With this method we present the spatial variability mapping for the optimal forest road network and the environmental impacts evaluation that are caused to the natural environment. With the use of the MCE method, we can assess the human impact intensity to the forest ecosystem as well as the ecosystem?s absorption from the impacts that are caused from the forest roads? construction. For the human impact intensity assessment the criteria that were used are: the forest?s protection percentage, the forest road density, the applied skidding means (with either the use of tractors or the cable logging systems in timber skidding), the timber skidding direction, the traffic load and truck type, the distance between forest roads and streams, the distance between forest roads and the forest boundaries and the probability that the forest roads come through unstable soils. In addition, for the ecosystem?s absorption evaluation we used forestry, topographical and social criteria. The MCE method which is described in this study provides a powerful, useful and easy to use implement in order to combine the sustainable exploitation of natural resources and the environmental protection.