Research Information System
Journal of Cleaner Production, vol.547, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
In recent years, biodiversity-based trade, which integrates ecological value and sustainable practices across sectors such as medicinal plants, cosmetics, and forestry, has become an important component of national trade strategies, particularly in biodiversity-rich countries. Despite its growing importance, systematic evaluation frameworks to assess and compare national biodiversity-based trade performance remain limited, highlighting the need for rigorous analytical tools. The primary objective of this study is to develop and apply multi-criteria decision analytics for measuring biodiversity-based trade performance. To evaluate countries' performance in this area, the study proposes the Fermatean fuzzy (FF)−Sugeno-Weber−ranking comparison (RANCOM)−symmetry point of criterion (SPC)−compromise ranking from alternative solutions (CORASO) decision analytics, which integrates multi-criteria decision-making and fuzzy logic-based expert assessments. The FF−Sugeno-Weber−RANCOM method is employed as a subjective weighting technique, enabling the use of fuzzy set theory and facilitating robust aggregation. FF−SPC is used as an objective weighting approach. FF−CORASO is utilized to rank the biodiversity-based trade performance of countries. The proposed multi-criteria decision analytics is applied to 19 like-minded megadiverse countries (LMMCs). The results indicate that "import growths" is the most significant criterion, while Brazil ranks highest in biodiversity-based trade performance among the selected LMMCs. The robustness of the proposed multi-criteria decision analytics is supported by four distinct sensitivity analyses. Comparative analyses validate the consistency of the findings. The study provides practical, theoretical, policy-related, strategic and biodiversity and sustainability implications as well as relevant recommendations.