Abstract

The effectiveness of different conservation policies is debated, but the policies are rarely evaluated quantitatively. A voluntary or ‘soft’ policy based mainly on education provides information about ecosystems and effects of land use, to encourage conservation action. Swedish forestry relies mainly on soft policy, with substantial resources for education and advice to more than 200,000 forest owners, while legal regulation is weak. Increased retention of broadleaved trees at clear-cutting, with environmental benefits in the conifer-dominated forestry, is important in the policy. We used the Swedish National Forest Inventory to analyse this policy for young forests in southern Sweden. Between 1983–1987 and 1998–2002 the policy had no positive effect on saplings (1.3 m tall to 4.9 cm dbh) of birch, oak, beech and other species that mostly decreased in density, due to planting of conifers and browsing by ungulates. However, broadleaved conservation trees (??15 cm dbh) increased in density, e.g. to about one oak and six birches per ha in young coniferous forest in 1998–2002. The relative increase in density was higher for large (??20 cm dbh) than for small trees (15–20 cm dbh). The density of conservation trees was higher on forestland of high than of low productivity. Thus, the soft conservation policy did not influence regeneration of saplings in this type of forestry system, but large broadleaved trees were increasingly saved at ‘clear-cuttings’. Advice and educational programmes probably contributed to this result. A continued increase in conservation trees at harvest may require economical support to forest owners

Keywords

Conservation trees; Policy; Voluntary approach; Forest; Forestry; Saplings; Retained trees; Swedish National Forest Inventory

Published in

Journal of Environmental Management
2009, Volume: 90, number: 2, pages: 1081–1088

SLU Authors

• Fridman, Jonas

  • Department of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Kempe, Göran

  • Department of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Associated SLU-program

Forest


Sustainable Development Goals

SDG15 Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
SDG4 Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all


UKÄ Subject classification

Forest Science
Environmental Sciences


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2008.04.002

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/19902