Designing Forested Landscapes to Provide Multiple Services. von Gadow, K., Kurttila, M., Leskinen, P., Leskinen, L., Nuutinen, T., & Pukkala, T.
Designing Forested Landscapes to Provide Multiple Services [link]Paper  doi  abstract   bibtex   
Forest services are benefits generated for society by the existence of certain forest types and their attributes. The particular mix of services, and their amount and quality, depend on the condition of the forest resource. Water and nitrogen processes are determined to a great extent by forest management. Streamwater runoff in areas where water is a scarce resource is significantly affected by tree cover and tree age. Old forests may provide better vistas and more suitable habitat than young forests. Such examples illustrate the overriding importance of the particular forest condition which is created by forest management. Most of the world's forests are utilized by humans and this implies that the dynamics of a forest ecosystem is not so much an ecological, but predominantly a cultural problem. The requirements for forest services are manifold and they are not constant over time. Traditional forest planning is based on principles of constancy and long-term stability. Silvicultural programmes were assumed to remain constant for at least one rotation. In reality, however, periodic reorientation and frequent changes of forest policy are quite common. The history of silviculture is not characterized by constancy, but rather by continuous change in policy. Concrete examples of this vicissitude are changes in the preferred silvicultural systems (clearfelling vs selective harvesting; planting vs natural regeneration), the preferred tree species (beech, spruce, 'exotic' species) and the preferred forest structures (even-aged monocultures; uneven-aged multispecies forest). In view of the difficulty in predicting the direction and rate of change, some of the assumptions that have guided forest planning in the past are re-examined. We first define some of the terminology and show that the dynamic development of a managed forest ecosystem is not only an ecological but predominantly an economic and a cultural problem. We then show that the common practice of standardizing silviculture complicates decision-making and is ineffective in providing multiple services, because it assumes that social, economic and environmental conditions remain constant over time. Nyberg (1998) thus proposed greater emphasis on adaptive management, which involves systematic learning on the basis of the results of past silvicultural activities. Such learning may be slow, however. For this reason, it is advisable to use new paradigms of managing forest ecosystems, together with improved modelling tools, which permit accurate forecasting and systematic evaluation of different management options, based on current information about the forest resource. The 'Multiple Path' theory, which may be considered as a particular form of adaptive forest management, provides a suitable basis for designing forested landscapes. The basic idea is not entirely new and has been implemented in various simplified forms, in North America and Northern Europe. Extensions to cover a desired mix of services have been developed for smaller applications, but the concept has never been recognized as a general basis for designing forests with the aim of delivering multiple services in societies which are committed to the standard of Public Choice. Some principles of forest design are presented and outlined in some detail: how to initialize the landscape and link the levels of the spatial hierarchy; how to balance the mix of services and design their spatial arrangement; and how to integrate varied forms of expertise into forest design. Several of the required modelling tools are briefly explained. [Excerpt: Clarification of Terminology] [...] Forest ecosystem services are benefits generated for society by the existence of certain forest types and their attributes. Forests may provide multiple services. However, the particular mix of services, and their amount and quality, depend on the condition of the forest resource. Water and nitrogen processes are determined to a great extent by forest management [6-8]. Old forests may provide a more suitable habitat for certain animals than young forests [9]. Streamwater runoff is significantly affected by the age of trees within stands, and the choice of rotation is important in regions where timber production is competing with water yields [10]. Such examples illustrate the overriding importance of the particular forest condition which is created by forest management. [\n] [...] [\n] Most of the world's forests are utilized by humans. This implies that the dynamics of a forest ecosystem is not only an ecological, but also a cultural issue. Humans cannot be separated from the surrounding natural environments, because social and ecological processes are intertwined [13, 14]. Such socio-ecological systems are complex. Two of their inherent features are constant change and uncertainty. Utilization of natural resources for human needs, such as gardening, agriculture or tree harvesting, impacts on the ecosystem. Some of these impacts produce unintentional and unpleasant results, such as flooding or climate change. Considering these disturbances, sustainable forest resource management is based on the premise that socio-ecological systems are resilient, i.e. that the social system has the capacity to respond to them [15]. [\n] Thus, the change in forest policy and a changing public demand for ecosystem services may originate from unintentional consequences of earlier management practices (abandoning monocultures in favour of near-natural forest management to satisfy an increasing demand for recreation) or it may originate from sudden economic needs (abandoning near-natural forest management in favour of monocultures for increased biomass production). Such socio-ecological processes are hard to predict. [\n] [...] [Conclusions] It can be assumed that most of the world's forests are utilized by humans in some way or other. Thus, the forest condition is controlled by management, and management is usually based on long- and medium-term planning. We have shown that the traditional practice of standardizing silviculture complicates decision-making and is ineffective in providing multiple services, because it assumes that social, economic and environmental conditions are constant. The socio-political framework is highly dynamic, and standardized long-term forest management planning is ineffective at meeting societal demands. These demands may change quickly, often several times within the life of a tree. Examples are provided to illustrate how standardized long-term planning cannot meet framework conditions over the entire rotation length. This problem is relatively new and requires new approaches. [\n] Forests may provide multiple services, but the kinds of services and their extent depends on the spatial distribution of stands within the landscape and on the particular properties of the stands at a given point in time. A stand that is currently stocked with widelyspaced large oak trees provides specific vistas, habitat and economic returns. These services will change dramatically when the stand is harvested and regenerated. Human intervention thus promotes or disables a particular combination of services that may be needed at a particular time, taking account of the fact that trees are slow-growing and drastic changes of the species composition or rapid increase in the tree sizes are not possible. [\n] [...] [\n] Each management activity has an influence on the mix of services, not only within the stand, but also in the landscape as a whole. A local harvesting operation contributes to the global reduction of carbon stock, and affects the global mix of services. The different design levels are inseparable, despite spatial fragmentation. However, the provision of services on the landscape level is often complicated by the relatively small size and large quantity of forest stands and by different objectives of the landowners. This situation requires an approach that is hierarchical. [\n] [...]
@article{vongadowDesigningForestedLandscapes2007,
  title = {Designing Forested Landscapes to Provide Multiple Services},
  author = {von Gadow, K. and Kurttila, M. and Leskinen, P. and Leskinen, L. and Nuutinen, T. and Pukkala, T.},
  date = {2007-09},
  journaltitle = {CAB Reviews: Perspectives in Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Nutrition and Natural Resources},
  volume = {2},
  issn = {1749-8848},
  doi = {10.1079/pavsnnr20072038},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1079/pavsnnr20072038},
  abstract = {Forest services are benefits generated for society by the existence of certain forest types and their attributes. The particular mix of services, and their amount and quality, depend on the condition of the forest resource. Water and nitrogen processes are determined to a great extent by forest management. Streamwater runoff in areas where water is a scarce resource is significantly affected by tree cover and tree age. Old forests may provide better vistas and more suitable habitat than young forests. Such examples illustrate the overriding importance of the particular forest condition which is created by forest management. Most of the world's forests are utilized by humans and this implies that the dynamics of a forest ecosystem is not so much an ecological, but predominantly a cultural problem. The requirements for forest services are manifold and they are not constant over time. Traditional forest planning is based on principles of constancy and long-term stability. Silvicultural programmes were assumed to remain constant for at least one rotation. In reality, however, periodic reorientation and frequent changes of forest policy are quite common. The history of silviculture is not characterized by constancy, but rather by continuous change in policy. Concrete examples of this vicissitude are changes in the preferred silvicultural systems (clearfelling vs selective harvesting; planting vs natural regeneration), the preferred tree species (beech, spruce, 'exotic' species) and the preferred forest structures (even-aged monocultures; uneven-aged multispecies forest). In view of the difficulty in predicting the direction and rate of change, some of the assumptions that have guided forest planning in the past are re-examined. We first define some of the terminology and show that the dynamic development of a managed forest ecosystem is not only an ecological but predominantly an economic and a cultural problem. We then show that the common practice of standardizing silviculture complicates decision-making and is ineffective in providing multiple services, because it assumes that social, economic and environmental conditions remain constant over time. Nyberg (1998) thus proposed greater emphasis on adaptive management, which involves systematic learning on the basis of the results of past silvicultural activities. Such learning may be slow, however. For this reason, it is advisable to use new paradigms of managing forest ecosystems, together with improved modelling tools, which permit accurate forecasting and systematic evaluation of different management options, based on current information about the forest resource. The 'Multiple Path' theory, which may be considered as a particular form of adaptive forest management, provides a suitable basis for designing forested landscapes. The basic idea is not entirely new and has been implemented in various simplified forms, in North America and Northern Europe. Extensions to cover a desired mix of services have been developed for smaller applications, but the concept has never been recognized as a general basis for designing forests with the aim of delivering multiple services in societies which are committed to the standard of Public Choice. Some principles of forest design are presented and outlined in some detail: how to initialize the landscape and link the levels of the spatial hierarchy; how to balance the mix of services and design their spatial arrangement; and how to integrate varied forms of expertise into forest design. Several of the required modelling tools are briefly explained.

[Excerpt: Clarification of Terminology] [...] Forest ecosystem services are benefits generated for society by the existence of certain forest types and their attributes. Forests may provide multiple services. However, the particular mix of services, and their amount and quality, depend on the condition of the forest resource. Water and nitrogen processes are determined to a great extent by forest management [6-8]. Old forests may provide a more suitable habitat for certain animals than young forests [9]. Streamwater runoff is significantly affected by the age of trees within stands, and the choice of rotation is important in regions where timber production is competing with water yields [10]. Such examples illustrate the overriding importance of the particular forest condition which is created by forest management. [\textbackslash n] [...]

[\textbackslash n] Most of the world's forests are utilized by humans. This implies that the dynamics of a forest ecosystem is not only an ecological, but also a cultural issue. Humans cannot be separated from the surrounding natural environments, because social and ecological processes are intertwined [13, 14]. Such socio-ecological systems are complex. Two of their inherent features are constant change and uncertainty. Utilization of natural resources for human needs, such as gardening, agriculture or tree harvesting, impacts on the ecosystem. Some of these impacts produce unintentional and unpleasant results, such as flooding or climate change. Considering these disturbances, sustainable forest resource management is based on the premise that socio-ecological systems are resilient, i.e. that the social system has the capacity to respond to them [15]. 
[\textbackslash n] Thus, the change in forest policy and a changing public demand for ecosystem services may originate from unintentional consequences of earlier management practices (abandoning monocultures in favour of near-natural forest management to satisfy an increasing demand for recreation) or it may originate from sudden economic needs (abandoning near-natural forest management in favour of monocultures for increased biomass production). Such socio-ecological processes are hard to predict. 

[\textbackslash n] [...]

[Conclusions] It can be assumed that most of the world's forests are utilized by humans in some way or other. Thus, the forest condition is controlled by management, and management is usually based on long- and medium-term planning. We have shown that the traditional practice of standardizing silviculture complicates decision-making and is ineffective in providing multiple services, because it assumes that social, economic and environmental conditions are constant. The socio-political framework is highly dynamic, and standardized long-term forest management planning is ineffective at meeting societal demands. These demands may change quickly, often several times within the life of a tree. Examples are provided to illustrate how standardized long-term planning cannot meet framework conditions over the entire rotation length. This problem is relatively new and requires new approaches.

[\textbackslash n] Forests may provide multiple services, but the kinds of services and their extent depends on the spatial distribution of stands within the landscape and on the particular properties of the stands at a given point in time. A stand that is currently stocked with widelyspaced large oak trees provides specific vistas, habitat and economic returns. These services will change dramatically when the stand is harvested and regenerated. Human intervention thus promotes or disables a particular combination of services that may be needed at a particular time, taking account of the fact that trees are slow-growing and drastic changes of the species composition or rapid increase in the tree sizes are not possible. 

[\textbackslash n] [...]

[\textbackslash n] Each management activity has an influence on the mix of services, not only within the stand, but also in the landscape as a whole. A local harvesting operation contributes to the global reduction of carbon stock, and affects the global mix of services. The different design levels are inseparable, despite spatial fragmentation. However, the provision of services on the landscape level is often complicated by the relatively small size and large quantity of forest stands and by different objectives of the landowners. This situation requires an approach that is hierarchical. 

[\textbackslash n] [...]},
  keywords = {*imported-from-citeulike-INRMM,~INRMM-MiD:c-13911588,~to-add-doi-URL,array-of-factors,ecosystem-services,forest-resources,landscape-modelling,mature-forests,multiplicity},
  number = {038},
  options = {useprefix=true}
}
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