Capturing the potential biodiversity effects of forestry practices in life cycle assessment

Purpose The pressure of forestry operations on biodiversity is not appropriately characterized using existing life cycle inventories and impact assessment methodologies. As a consequence, it is not possible to distinguish between well-managed and poorly managed forests in terms of biodiversity. Several attempts have been made to establish a biodiversity impact assessment method to be used in life cycle assessment (LCA). Those methods cannot be easily implemented by practitioners, or they cannot be used to differentiate forestry practices. We therefore propose an alternative approach that requires limited data collection, while reflecting effects of forestry practices on biodiversity.