From logging frontier towards sustainable forest management: experiences from boreal regions of North-West Russia and North Sweden

Sammanfattning

This article describes the transformation of old-growth forest to managed forests, in North (N) Sweden and boreal regions of North-West (BNW) Russia, from economic, social and ecological perspectives. Whereas in BNW Russia, the logging frontier could be kept moving into unharvested regions, N Sweden earlier had to develop solutions where large-scale logging had already taken place. In 1950–1990, Swedish strategies included rationing of old forest, effective regeneration and also precommercial and commercial thinning. Supporting means were legislation, government-funded subsidies and collaboration among enterprises, researchers and political leaders. BNW Russia is currently facing similar challenges and N Swedish experiences should be analysed and used where applicable. In N Sweden, a too low proportion of representative productive old forests remains, but in the last decades, N Swedish forests exempted from economic use have been significantly increased. Ongoing discussions of also defining areas with more intensive forest management would lead to a zoning, bearing some resemblance to the Russian system, in use since 1943. Russian experience should, therefore, be of interest to Swedish forest policy-makers. Both countries have problems with rural social issues. Both can benefit from collaboration on these aspects of sustainable forest management.

Nyckelord

Sustainable forest management; forest policy; forest age distribution; rural development; biodiversity conservation; forest management; history; logging frontier

Publicerad i

Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research
2013, volym: 28, nummer: 8, sidor: 797-810

SLU författare

• Nordberg, Mats

  • Skogsmästarskolan, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

• Angelstam, Per

  • Skogsmästarskolan, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

• Elbakidze, Marine

  • Skogsmästarskolan, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

• Axelsson, Robert

  • Skogsmästarskolan, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

Globala målen (SDG)

SDG8 Anständiga arbetsvillkor och ekonomisk tillväxt
SDG12 Hållbar konsumtion och produktion
SDG15 Ekosystem och biologisk mångfald

UKÄ forskningsämne

Skogsvetenskap

Publikationens identifierare

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02827581.2013.838993

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/51513