Forests for wood production and human wellbeing – what are the trade-offs in long-term forest management planning?

Abstract

Social values of forests are increasingly recognized as important objectives in forest management planning. For instance, forests contribute to human health and wellbeing by providing a suitable environment for recreation and rehabilitation. However, it remains a challenge to defi ne and measure these values in terms of forest variables and to incorporate them into forest planning. The objective of this study is to quantify rehabilitation forest characteristics and analyze trade-offs between wood production and rehabilitation forests. The study builds on previous studies of preferences for different forest types among participants in a stress rehabilitation program. For three forest estates in northern, middle and southern Sweden, correlation analysis indicated that the fi ve most important stand-level variables were age, stems/ha, height, diameter and standing volume. Threshold values were set for these variables as well as spatial criteria to defi ne rehabilitation forest. The Heureka decision support system was used to analyze the relation between maintaining different shares of rehabilitation forest and the loss in net present value (NPV) for forestry over a 100 year period. Preliminary results show that 15–25% can be maintained as rehabilitation forest without considerable decrease in NPV. Age and spatial restrictions seems to be important limiting factors.

Published in

International Forestry Review
2014, volume: 16, number: 5, pages: 24-24
Publisher: The Commonwealth Forestry Association

Conference

XXIV IUFRO World Congress 2014 "Sustaining Forests, Sustaining People: The Role of Research"

SLU Authors

• Nordström, Eva-Maria

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

• Lundell, Ylva

  • Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Stoltz, Jonathan

  • Department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Skärbäck, Erik

  • Department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Van Den Bosch, Matilda

  • Department of People and Society, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Grahn, Patrik

  • Department of People and Society, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Dolling, Ann

  • Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Forest Science

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/68921