Sammanfattning

There are currently competing demands on Europe's forests and the finite resources and services that they can offer. Forestry intensification that aims at mitigating climate change and biodiversity conservation is one example. Whether or not these two objectives compete can be evaluated by comparative studies of forest landscapes with different histories. We test the hypothesis that indicators of wood production and biodiversity conservation are inversely related in a gradient of long to short forestry intensification histories. Forest management data containing stand age, volume and tree species were used to model the opportunity for wood production and biodiversity conservation in five north European forest regions representing a gradient in landscape history from very long in the West and short in the East. Wood production indicators captured the supply of coniferous wood and total biomass, as well as current accessibility by transport infrastructure. Biodiversity conservation indicators were based on modelling habitat network functionality for focal bird species dependent on different combinations of stand age and tree species composition representing naturally dynamic forests. In each region we randomly sampled 25 individual 100-km(2) areas with contiguous forest cover. Regarding wood production, Sweden's Bergslagen region had the largest areas of coniferous wood, followed by Vitebsk in Belarus and Zemgale in Latvia. NW Russia's case study regions in Pskov and Komi had the lowest values, except for the biomass indicator. The addition of forest accessibility for transportation made the Belarusian and Swedish study region most suitable for wood and biomass production, followed by Latvia and two study regions in NW Russian. Regarding biodiversity conservation, the overall rank among regions was opposite. Mixed and deciduous habitats were functional in Russia, Belarus and Latvia. Old Scots pine and Norway spruce habitats were only functional in Komi. Thus, different regional forest histories provide different challenges in terms of satisfying both wood production and biodiversity conservation objectives in a forest management unit. These regional differences in northern Europe create opportunities for exchanging experiences among different regional contexts about how to achieve both objectives. We discuss this in the context of land-sharing versus land-sparing. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Nyckelord

Bio-economy; Conservation; Forest policy; Intensification; Land-sharing; Land-sparing; Spatial planning; Sustainable forest management

Publicerad i

Journal of Environmental Management
2018, Volym: 218, sidor: 1-13
Utgivare: ACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

SLU författare

• Naumov, Vladimir

  • Skogsmästarskolan, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

• Elbakidze, Marine

  • Skogsmästarskolan, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

• Angelstam, Per

  • Skogsmästarskolan, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

Globala målen

Bygga motståndskraftig infrastruktur, verka för en inkluderande och hållbar industrialisering samt främja innovation
Säkerställa hållbara konsumtions- och produktionsmönster
Vidta omedelbara åtgärder för att bekämpa klimatförändringarna och dess konsekvenser
Skydda, återställa och främja ett hållbart nyttjande av landbaserade ekosystem, hållbart bruka skogar, bekämpa ökenspridning, hejda och vrida tillbaka markförstöringen samt hejda förlusten av biologisk mångfald


UKÄ forskningsämne

Ekologi
Skogsvetenskap


Publikationens identifierare

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.03.095

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/95773