MANAGING FORESTS FOR MULTIPLE TRADEOFFS: COMPROMISING ON TIMBER, CARBON AND BIODIVERSITY OBJECTIVES
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In this paper, we develop a multiple objective, decision-making model that focuses on forest policies that simultaneously achieve carbon uptake and maintenance of ecosystem diversity objectives. Two forest carbon measures are used – a nominal (undiscounted) net carbon uptake as a proxy for long-term carbon sequestration and discounted net carbon uptake that captures the “fast” carbon accumulation aspect. Ecosystem diversity is expressed in terms of desired structures for forest and afforested agricultural land. Economic effects of possible strategies are examined by comparing attainment of these objectives with the net discounted returns from commercial timber harvests and agricultural activities. The tradeoffs between timber and non-timber objectives are obtained by means of compromise programming. Two measures of distance between the current objective values and the ideal ones are used to assess attainment of multiple goals. We explore how the choice of a measure affects the decisions and overall performance. The model is applied to the boreal forest and accompanying marginal agricultural lands in the Peace River region of northeastern British Columbia.Keywords:
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Much reference is made to the importance of forests in the delivery of ecosystem services. This paper examines the range of biophysical services provided by forests and the economic and social value of the final ecosystem services. Although information is presented for Ireland where just over one tenth of the land area is forest, most of which is comprised of planted conifer species with a smaller proportion of broadleaf species, this composition is comparable to that of many other developed countries with a temperate climate. The assessment examines the evidence for ecosystem services in relation to habitat, timber production, carbon storage and sequestration, water quality, moderation of run-off, recreation and amenity. It distinguishes between the services provided by forests as distinct from trees and takes into account alternative uses of the land, the role of soils and the contribution of appropriate management to avoiding potentially adverse impacts. It aims to provide a comprehensive, if introductory review of the range of ES, the interactions that exist between them, their economic value and the opportunities for forest policy and management to strengthen these benefits.
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Canada's forests —particularly the boreal—are a major storehouse of carbon. How they are managed could significantly affect Canada's greenhouse gas emissions while also presenting a new revenue source for forest managers. This study attempts to assess how a carbon price could affect forest management, particularly in Canada's boreal plains region. An integrated modelling approach is developed to incorporate both forest carbon and timber supply considerations within an optimal management framework. This modelling approach allows for consideration of alternative market and regula tory scenarios, along with a range of possible management intensity and harvest scheduling options over the landscape. The overall conclusion is that carbon incentives will increase the value of the boreal forest—potentially quite signifi cantly— and will generally encourage management changes consistent with sustainable forest management practices.
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Over recent decades forest management has recognized the fact that forests provide a wide variety of services besides timber, such as carbon sequestration and the preservation of biodiversity. During this time, science has found significant evidence that climate change is actually taking place. Since the change in climatic conditions will affect the vital cycle of trees, the optimal management of forests needs to be adapted to these new conditions to make the best use of forests from the social point of view. From the policy side, forest management is confronted with the task of balancing the objectives of competitiveness, compliance with international agreements with respect to climate change mitigation and the preservation of biodiversity. This study aims to analyze the optimal management regime of forests under changing climatic conditions, taking timber, carbon and biodiversity into account. It finds that the objectives of carbon sequestration and biodiversity should target different stands. The cost of the latter can be reduced substantially if only mature stands are pursued and not young stands.
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The integration of water production values for forest ecosystems into forest management models has become increasingly important in sustainable forest management in recent years because forests play a vital role in the quantity and quality of surface and ground water resources. The main objective of this work was to develop a multiple use forest management planning model, focusing on the economic effects of some forest management policy constraints on timber and water production values for forest ecosystems. Each forest value is functionally linked to stand structure and is quantified economically. Various forest management planning scenarios were developed to be applied in a typical forest that has the potential to yield timber and water benefits. The analysis was performed by formulating a linear programming-based multiple-use forest management planning model. The results show that the total net present value (NPV) of timber and water production profits would be reduced by up to 25.3% when area and timber volume policy constraints are incorporated into an unconstrained forest management planning model. The results also indicate that, if forests are managed to meet some forest management policy constraints, the NPV of timber production is considerably reduced. In addition, the interactions between timber and water are found to be complementary, depending on the assumed relationships between forest ecosystem structure and forest values. In terms of forest management, the issue of water quality and quantity is likely to become even more important in the future, due mainly to increasing demand on water.
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Forest management can modify key ecosystem attributes, affecting tree growth long after the end of forest management. Long-term influence of current management on forest recovery has been explored with the FORECAST model in Pinus caribaea Morelet plantations in western Cuba. Management for three different products was simulated: biomass, fibre and timber, with differences in rotation length and harvest intensity. Our results show that biomass production can produce ecosystem degradation that may need centuries to recover. If fibre is the objective of management, ecosystem recovery would be faster than managing for bioenergy. However, only if timber is the final objective the ecosystem might be able to keep similar conditions to the natural forest. In conclusion, our results show that forest management legacies can be a key factor in accelerating of delaying forest ecosystem recovery, depending on the exploitation intensity. These results also show the utility of ecosystem-level management models to analyze alternative management scenarios and their effects on the forest ecosystem.
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Regrowing forests on cleared land is a key strategy to achieve both biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation globally. Maximizing these co-benefits, however, remains theoretically and technically challenging because of the complex relationship between carbon sequestration and biodiversity in forests, the strong influence of climate variability and landscape position on forest development, the large number of restoration strategies possible, and long time-frames needed to declare success. Through the synthesis of three decades of knowledge on forest dynamics and plant functional traits combined with decision science, we demonstrate that we cannot always maximize carbon sequestration by simply increasing the functional trait diversity of trees planted. The relationships between plant functional diversity, carbon sequestration rates above ground and in the soil are dependent on climate and landscape positions. We show how to manage 'identities' and 'complementarities' between plant functional traits to achieve systematically maximal cobenefits in various climate and landscape contexts. We provide examples of optimal planting and thinning rules that satisfy this ecological strategy and guide the restoration of forests that are rich in both carbon and plant functional diversity. Our framework provides the first mechanistic approach for generating decision-makingrules that can be used to manage forests for multiple objectives, and supports joined carbon credit and biodiversity conservation initiatives, such as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation REDD+. The decision framework can also be linked to species distribution models and socio-economic models to find restoration solutions that maximize simultaneously biodiversity, carbon stocks, and other ecosystem services across landscapes. Our study provides the foundation for developing and testing cost-effective and adaptable forest management rules to achieve biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and other socio-economic co-benefits under global change.
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