MODELLING SITE SELECTION FOR TREE PLANTATION ESTABLISHMENT UNDER DIFFERENT DECISION SCENARIOS

The growing worldwide demand for forest products cannot be sufficiently provided by natural forests. The federal government of Mexico has identified three areas (north-east, Huasteca and Gulf of Mexico) to foster forest development via tree plantation establishment to meet industrial demand for forest products both locally and globally, and to diminish pressure on natural forest. This paper focuses on spatially determining available areas for establishing new plantations in the Huasteca Potosina region as landscape planning tool for decision-makers. Different levels of land suitability were classified based on their potential to satisfy the agro-ecological requirements of Eucalyptus grandis, E. urophylla, Gmelina arborea, Tectona grandis, Cedrela odorata and Acrocarpus fraxinifolius using the weighted linear combination method by integrating climatic, edaphic and topographic factors as well as constraints such as land availability. Land suitability maps for each species were combined through the multi-objective land allocation (MOLA) approach considering four scenarios: (1) equal importance for all species, (2) species growth rate, (3) species quality of wood for furniture production and (4) potential tree health problems that could affect the plantation during its growth period. Results indicated that over 80% of the area available for tree plantations has a medium, high or very high land suitability for adequate growth of the tree species of interest. The maps obtained are useful for those wishing to invest funds in the establishment of new tree plantations of the selected tree species in the study area.