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MATERIALS 49
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organisational classifications were processed. All qualitative The interview cohort comprised 41 professionals stratified
interactions were handled to preserve participant anonymity, across seven distinct stakeholder categories to capture a
informed consent was formally obtained from all respondents comprehensive cross-section of the industry: forest owners
prior to data collection, and all data management protocols (n=8), foresters (n=5), forest operating companies (n=2), timber
strictly complied with the European Union General Data logistics providers (n=2), timber processing and sawmill
Protection Regulation (GDPR). companies (n=6), forest service firms (n=10), and representatives

from industry associations, research organisations, or scientific
Literature-Based Synthesis & Desk Research institutions (n=7).
A targeted literature review and secondary desk research were To maximise methodological transparency, data collection
executed to systematically map contemporary scientific and was standardised across a team of five trained researchers.
grey literature concerning blockchain architectures, supply The semi-structured interviews were conducted remotely via
chain traceability, and digital forestry ecosystems. secure web-conferencing software or telephone, with selected
The screening process synthesised established domain sessions carried out in person.
reviews to accomplish three primary goals: All sessions were audio-recorded and subsequently
(i) characterise systemic challenges and architectural design transcribed manually to ensure verbatim data precision.

choices in blockchain-supported tracking, The total dataset encompassed interview durations ranging
(ii) define a baseline catalogue of socio-technical prerequisites, from 11 minutes to 1 hour and 39 minutes, yielding a mean
and (iii) establish empirical core themes for subsequent interview length of 43 minutes.
field research. The preliminary structural tools were designed To protect participant privacy, individual demographic
through a multi-stage process based on these synthesis insights. identifiers such as exact age or specific corporate identities
Guideline items and survey prompts were drafted and were fully omitted from the transcripts.
iteratively refined within the research consortium using the digital The qualitative text corpus was analysed using Structured

collaboration platform Miro. To ensure empirical standardisation Qualitative Content Analysis. This systematic, rule-guided
and enable future replication, these items were structured into framework combines deductive, theory-driven main categories
formalised instruments prior to deployment. derived from the literature with inductive, data-driven subcategories
A purposive sampling approach was utilised to establish a that emerged directly from the text.
candidate pool of 108 high-level experts and pivotal institutional To minimise individual researcher bias and ensure
actors within the Central European timber value chain. analytical reliability, three independent researchers executed
Candidates were selected from the established professional the multi-stage coding process; any coding discrepancies
networks and stakeholder databases of the participating research
partners based on their direct operational engagement with

timber logistics, certification, or EUDR compliance strategies. stevecoleimages
Out of this initial cohort, 41 experts self-selected to participate
in the qualitative interview phase, ensuring a highly motivated
sample with specialised technical and regulatory authority.
This sample size was deemed methodologically sufficient
as data saturation (thematic redundancy) was demonstrably
achieved within the final iterations.