Search

Sustainable forest management is driving the development of forest decision support systems (DSSs) to include models and methods concerned with climate change, biodiversity and various ecosystem services (ESs). The future development of forest landscapes is very much dependent on how forest owners act and what goes on in the wider world; thus, models are needed that incorporate these aspects. The objective of this study is to assess how nine European state-of-the-art forest DSSs cope with these issues. The assessment focuses on the ability of these DSSs to generate landscape-level scenarios to explore the output of current and alternative forest management models (FMMs) in terms of a range of ESs and the robustness of these FMMs in the face of increased risks and uncertainty. Results show that all DSSs assessed in this study can be used to quantify the impacts of both stand- and landscape-level FMMs on the provision of a range of ESs over a typical planning horizon. DSSs can be used to assess how timber price trends may impact that provision over time. The inclusion of forest owner behavior as reflected by the adoption of specific FMMs seems to be also in the reach of all DSSs. Nevertheless, some DSSs need more data and development of models to estimate the impacts of climate change on biomass production and other ESs. Spatial analysis functionality needs to be further developed for a more accurate assessment of the landscape-level output of ESs from both current and alternative FMMs. European Commission Horizon 2020 Portuguese Science Foundation

Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) has become an important pillar of modern forest management, and one way to evaluate the sustainability of forestry is to assess long-term supply of ecosystem services (ESs) indicators. The concept of sustainability also has come to include adapting to climate change and the associated dynamic timber markets. This study aims to: (1) incorporate several ESs indicators in a Forest Management Decision Support System (FMDSS) that can deal with climate change and dynamic timber markets; and (2) analyse the impact that intensified forest management, resulting from global change scenarios that represent different levels of climate change mitigation efforts, will have on forest ES indicators in the west of Ireland. A linear programming model that optimized Net Present Value (NPV) from mill-gate sales was previously developed in Remsoft Woodstock, a DSS framework used for strategic forest planning around the world. This Woodstock model was modified to include the effects of global scenarios that include climate change and dynamic timber prices. This model was further developed to include indicators for five ESs (carbon storage in the forest as well as in harvested wood products and carbon substitution, windthrow risk, biodiversity, water quality, and cultural values), to assess the impacts of these global scenarios on the forest landscape and the sustainability of forest management. The ES indicator values were mainly linked to forest age, forest type, and yield tables, and their inclusion in the FMDSS had almost no impact on total model run times. Intensified forest clearfelling, as a result of increasing timber prices associated with most global scenarios, led to increased phosphor emissions to waterbodies, and reductions in windthrow risk and carbon storage. The global scenarios only resulted in minor differences in the indicator values for biodiversity and cultural values. Besides the global scenarios, recent forest policy development and the poor soil conditions in the study area impacted on the results. The developed system, with its innovative method to incorporate climate change and associated market dynamics, could be applied to other forest landscapes in Ireland and Europe, or indeed by any forest company or organization that uses Remsoft Woodstock.

Forest management in Ireland has traditionally focused on timber production and policies have been implemented with this in mind. Since the mid-1990s, the focus is transitioning from timber production to a more multifunctional forest management approach following the principles of sustainable forest management. A method known as &ldquo, backcasting&rdquo, has the potential to include local stakeholders into land-use and policy planning. Two case study areas were chosen to investigate the potential of backcasting for integrated forest landscape planning in Ireland: Western Peatlands and Newmarket. Potential beneficial policies produced by local stakeholders in participatory workshops were assessed for robustness using a goal programming model and the resulting changes in forest management and ecosystem service provisions were analysed. While each evaluated backcasting policy increased the provision of that policy&rsquo, s targeted ecosystem service(s), it was at a cost to some others. The widening of buffer zones did reduce the landscape level risk to water sedimentation and the policy to enhance each landscape&rsquo, s recreation potential did the intended. However, both policies reduced the amount of timber produced for most potential futures. The option of using genetically improved tree species showed potential to mitigate the effect of these policies on timber production. We present this study as a useful reference point toward evaluating the efficacy of a range of potentially implementable scenarios in Ireland. We believe the backcasting approach has promise for future use in other landscapes, given the success of this approach in our study. Given that much of the information required to model the ecosystem services was extracted from scientific research and datasets from outside of Ireland, the approach may well be useful for others seeking to do similar outside of Ireland.

Farm-level tree planting has been suggested to have potential to decrease pressures on natural forests and, consequently, contribute towards reducing deforestation and forest degradation. However, the scientific evidence for such a link is limited. We examined farmers’ beliefs, attitudes and behaviours in relation to tree planting on farms and cutting down trees from the forest, as one way of establishing this link. A household survey was administered to 200 farmers in two rural districts in Malawi, which included an attitude scale based on the theory of planned behaviour. The results showed that farmers in Malawi recognise the benefits of planting trees, feel encouraged by fellow farmers, and feel capable of planting trees on their land. In addition, they believe cutting down trees from the forest will result in mainly negative outcomes, and feel discouraged by others and hindered by control factors to cut down trees from the forest. In total, 76 % of respondents planted trees in the past 5 years, 50 % collected firewood from the forest and 21 % collected poles. There was no evidence for a direct relationship between attitudes towards planting trees and cutting down trees, nor were the behaviours in relation to tree planting and cutting down trees from the forest significantly associated. However, there was evidence for an indirect relationship between tree planting behaviour and cutting down trees from the forest, as respondents who had planted trees had more negative attitudes towards cutting down trees from the forest. Future research should further explore the direct relationship between agroforestry and deforestation to establish if and under what conditions such a relationship might exist.

Despite the great potential of agricultural innovations, the uptake by smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa seems to be slow. We reviewed existing theories and frameworks for the uptake of agricultural innovations and found that these tend to emphasize the role of extrinsic factors such as the characteristics of the adopter and the external environment in the decision-making process. In this paper, we argue that intrinsic factors such as the knowledge, perceptions and attitudes of the potential adopter towards the innovation play a key role, but this has been less studied. We present an analytical framework that combines both extrinsic and intrinsic factors in farmers' decisions to adopt new agricultural technologies and apply the framework to agroforestry adoption as a case study. We review the literature on agroforestry adoption in sub-Saharan Africa and identify the extrinsic and intrinsic variables affecting the uptake of agroforestry technologies. We conclude that the uptake of agricultural tech...

Research Highlights: Predicting impacts on forest management of Climate Change (CC) and dynamic timber prices by incorporating these external factors in a Forest Management Decision Support System (FMDSS). Background and Objectives: Forest managers must comply with Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) practices, including considering the long-term impacts that CC and the bioeconomy may have on their forests and their management. The aims of this study are: (1) incorporate the effects of CC and Dynamic Prices (DP) in a FMDSS that was developed for Ireland’s peatland forests, (2) analyse the impact of global climate and market scenarios on forest management and forest composition at the landscape level. Materials and Methods: Remsoft Woodstock is a strategic planning decision support system that is widely used for forest management around the world. A linear programming model was developed for Ireland’s Western Peatland forests while using Woodstock. Data from Climadapt, which is an expert-based decision support system that was developed in Ireland, were used to include CC effects on forest productivity and species suitability. Dynamic market prices were also included to reflect the changing demands for wood fibre as part of the European Union (EU) and global effort to mitigate CC. Results: DP will likely have more impact on harvest patterns, volumes, and net present value than CC. Higher assortment prices, especially for pulpwood, stimulate the harvesting of forests on marginal sites and off-set some of the negative CC growth impacts on forest profitability. Conclusions: Incorporating CC and bioeconomy prices in a forest decision support system is feasible and recommendable. Foresters should incorporate the expected global changes in their long-term management planning to mitigate the negative effects that un-informed management decisions can have on the sustainability of their forests.

In order to share information on the development and use of forest management decision support systems (FMDSS), a European-initiated network has established a wiki website as part of its activities. Case studies and associated lessons learned were solicited from the network using semantic structures built on the wiki. A total of 31 cases from 10 different countries and 80 associated lessons were entered into the wiki. The resulting lessons were categorized (non-exclusively) using four major themes: (1) decision support system architecture and design (40 lessons), (2) methods and models (26), (3) knowledge management processes (34) and (4) participatory processes (32). The semantic wiki proved useful for gathering case information and relating it to other information objects, such as FMDSS software descriptions; however, it was not as well suited to the task of analysis and synthesis as commercial qualitative analysis software packages. Future development possibilities for the semantic structures are suggested, and more cases are solicited from the FMDSS community.

For forest sustainability and vulnerability assessment, the landscape scale is considered to be more and more relevant as the stand level approaches its known limitations. This review, which describes the main forest landscape simulation tools used in the 20 European case studies of the European project “Future-oriented integrated management of European forest landscapes” (INTEGRAL), gives an update on existing decision support tools to run landscape simulation from Mediterranean to boreal ecosystems. The main growth models and software available in Europe are described, and the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches are discussed. Trades-offs between input efforts and output are illustrated. Recommendations for the selection of a forest landscape simulator are given. The paper concludes by describing the need to have tools that are able to cope with climate change and the need to build more robust indicators for assessment of forest landscape sustainability and vulnerability. The INTEGRAL project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement No. 282887. http://www. integral-project.eu/. Moreover, financial support by the Transnational Access to Research Infrastructures activity in the 7th Framework Programme of the EC under the Trees4Future project (No. 284181) for conducting the research is gratefully acknowledged. This research has also received funding from the European Union H2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 691149 (SuFoRun). Researcher Jordi Garcia-Gonzalo was supported by a “Ramon y Cajal” research contract from the MINECO (Ref. RYC-2013-14262) and has received funding from CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya. This paper could be achieved thanks to support of EFIATLANTIC donors: Conseil regional d’Aquitaine, Ministère de l’agriculture et de la forêt.

Recent studies have highlighted land-use conflicts between stakeholder groups in Ireland. Some of these conflicts can be attributed to European directives, designed with sustainable forest management principles in mind, but imposing incoherencies for land-owners and stakeholders at the local level. This study, using Ireland’s Western Peatland forests as a case study area, focused on the development and implementation of a goal programming model capable of analysing the long term impact of policy and industry changes at the landscape level. The model captures the essential aspects of the changes identified by local level stakeholders as influencing forest management in Ireland and determines the future impact of these changes on ecosystem services provisions. Initially, a business as usual potential future is generated. This is used as a baseline against which to compare the impact of industry and policy changes. The model output indicated that the current forest composition is only really suited to satisfy a single, financial objective for forest management. The goal programming model analysed multiple objectives simultaneously and the results indicated that the stakeholders’ desired ecosystem service provisions in the future will be more closely met by diversifying the forest estate and/or by changing to an alternative, non-forest land-use on less productive areas.

While sustainable forestry in Europe is characterized by the provision of a multitude of forest ecosystem services, there exists no comprehensive study that scrutinizes their sensitivity to forest management on a pan-European scale, so far. We compile scenario runs from regionally tailored forest growth models and Decision Support Systems (DSS) from 20 case studies throughout Europe and analyze whether the ecosystem service provision depends on management intensity and other co-variables, comprising regional affiliation, social environment, and tree species composition. The simulation runs provide information about the case-specifically most important ecosystem services in terms of appropriate indicators. We found a strong positive correlation between management intensity and wood production, but only weak correlation with protective and socioeconomic forest functions. Interestingly, depending on the forest region, we found that biodiversity can react in both ways, positively and negatively, to increased management intensity. Thus, it may be in tradeoff or in synergy with wood production and forest resource maintenance. The covariables species composition and social environment are of punctual interest only, while the affiliation to a certain region often makes an important difference in terms of an ecosystem service’s treatment sensitivity info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Almost all timber in Ireland is harvested using mechanical harvesting heads. All new harvesters come equipped with computerized measurement systems. The objective of the research reported in this article was to assess the impact of calibration on the accuracy of harvester head measurement systems in Irish forestry conditions. The research was carried out on a site in Co. Cork. The harvester was a Timberjack 1270D with a 762C harvester head and the Timbermatic 300 control and measurement system. The harvester measurement system was assessed on its accuracy in measuring the length and volume of individual stems and logs in 9 check runs of 7 or 8 stems. The harvester head measurements were compared to values obtained by caliper-and-tape measurements. The main point that can be taken from this research is that regular calibration will greatly improve the accuracy of the harvester measurement system. After calibration, length measurement by the harvester measurement system of individual logs was very accurate, while volume measurement was unsatisfactory for the pulp log assortment. The differences between the harvester measurements and the caliper-and-tape measurements fluctuated greatly, varying from positive to negative differences within a check run, even after calibration. These fluctuations could indicate an inherent problem associated with the design of the calibration procedure, as the positive and negative differences cancel each other out and the calibration, based on mean values, appears to indicate accurate measurements. More work needs to be done on reducing to impact of the roughness and branchiness of smaller dimension logs on the accuracy of diameter and length measurements in Irish conditions.

World-wide, forest managers have long recognised the benefits of using optimisation-based modelling techniques to improve decision-making. With no such systems in operation in Irish forestry, optimisation-based economic models were developed for harvest scheduling on a forest level within the context of a hierarchical approach. These new techniques were compared to those currently employed by Coillte Teoranta (the Irish Forestry Board). The development of the optimisation models involved the evaluation of: different management options strategies, optimisation techniques, model types and constraint strategies. Evaluation of the models was carried out in Clonbrock forest (294.8 ha), a typical Irish plantation forest, owned and managed by Coillte. The application of the selected model resulted in an increase in net present value (NPV) over the 5-year planning period of 14.2% compared to the NPV produced by Coillte's current process.

The aim of this study was to examine the extent and severity of accidents and long-term health problems, and to evaluate perceptions of health and safety issues among forest harvesting contractors and sub-contractors in Ireland. A postal questionnaire was distributed to 450 forest harvesting (sub)contractors with the co-operation of the Irish Forestry Contractors Association (IFCA) and Coillte Teoranta (the State Forestry Company, referred to as Coillte). The questionnaire was completed and returned by 61 respondents. The majority of these were chainsaw, harvester and forwarder operators. The occurrence of an accident (requiring medical attention) in the last three years was reported by two respondents, while long-term health problems were reported by 23 (40%) of the respondents. Results showed that long-term health problems were not significantly correlated to age or training level. The two work elements in forest harvesting operations that were found to be most hazardous were operating a chainsaw and machine maintenance. When asked about the perceived dangers in the industry and the obstacles to improvements, 59% of the respondents identified harvesting work as dangerous, while 62% described financial pressure as the main barrier to improvements in safety, followed by the pressure of work (39%) and a lack of adequate training (36%). Suggestions on ways to improve the overall health and safety situation within forest harvesting included improved training and safety education (45%) and reduced work pressure (36%).

Recent labour shortages and rapid increases in labour costs in Irish forestry have directed attention to mechanised, containerised tree planting systems as an alternative to the traditional manual planting of bare-rooted stock. The objective of this study was to compare mechanised planting with manual operations, on both reforestation and afforestation sites, using Sitka spruce ( Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr.) plants in three container types (i.e. hard container, root trainer, fen container). The Bracke tree planting machine was selected for the study, as it is capable of handling a wide range of site conditions and a variety of plant types and sizes. A qualitative analysis of the collected data showed that, in general, manual planting scored significantly higher than mechanised planting for plant position and planting quality. However, the quality of planting resulting from mechanised operations was well within acceptable operational requirements. On the reforestation site, plant growth after one growing season was investigated. No overall significant differences in height growth and root collar diameter increment were found in the first growing season between mechanised and manual planting operations. Plants grown in `fen containers' had the highest relative increase in height growth and root collar diameter, irrespective of planting method. The results showed that the Bracke planting machine was capable of planting a range of containerised plants to an acceptable standard on both reforestation and afforestation sites. Further research to optimise the combination of machine, plant size and container type should result in improvements in both the quality and productivity of the planting operations.

Significant expansion has occurred in Ireland's forest estate since the 1950s. However, the design of the monocultural plantations established in the 1950s and 60s is now considered insensitive to local landscapes and re-design intervention and transformation is needed to improve integration into the environment. This case study was carried out in Laracus forest, Co. Donegal. The rotation of all stands in this 581-ha property has reached the final production phase, with coupes scheduled for clearfelling from 2003 to 2015. The implications of forest re-design for both the volume production in the current rotation and the financial return of the current and subsequent rotations were examined. Results indicated a volume loss due to design planning for the current rotation of 5.6% compared to the volume produced under the standard regime. In financial terms, this represents a loss of 4.6%. For the subsequent rotation, a significant financial gain of 22% in net present value was achieved as a result of redesigning the plantation. The overall financial out-turn for the property, when both the current and subsequent rotations were considered, was a 3.4% lower net present value for the design plan than for the standard regime. This result represents a lower impact of design planning in Laracus than most other forest restructuring studies have reported.

Coillte Teoranta, the Irish Forestry Board, was established as a forestry company in 1989, with a mandate to operate in forestry and related activities in a commercial manner. The company took over the assets of the state Forest Service and now owns and manages approximately 400,000 ha of forest. Coillte harvests and sells timber to the private wood processing industries in Ireland. Coillte harvested approximately 1.4 million m3 of timber in 1990. By 2010 this annual harvest volume will increase to 3.5 million m3. In order to manage the harvesting and transportation operations efficiently, a national timber sales allocation procedure was developed by the Forestry Department of University College, Dublin. The procedure uses Coillte's databases on harvest volumes, subdivided into supply categories; on mill demands, specified by demand categories; and on the national transportation network, including road, rail and water transport modes. The developed operational procedure was used as a decision-making tool during the allocation of the 1991 sales volumes. A comparison of the actual versus the optimized 1990 allocation strategy identified opportunities for large-scale savings. In addition to its main function as a decision-making tool for the annual sales allocation, the model has been used for other strategic and tactical planning analyses, such as the influence of new mill location on transport costs, the impacts of a timber processing industry rationalization programme on the industry as a whole and on individual mills, the feasibility of timber transport by rail, the selection of suitable ports for timber export, and the impact of road construction and improvement programmes on national timber transport strategies. The model has been successfully linked with the company's ARC/ INFO Geographic Information System which extends the post-allocation analysis and interpretation capabilities, and combines the output with existing information systems. A further integration of the procedure in the management decision-making processes in the company will result in increased cost saving opportunities.

This study examined farmers' attitudes towards tree planting on farms in Malawi, using the theory of planned behaviour as a conceptual framework. Questionnaires containing a scale that measures attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control in relation to tree planting were administered to 200 farmers in Chiradzulu and Mzimba districts in Malawi. Farmers who reported planting trees in the last five years had more positive attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control compared to farmers who have not planted trees. A hierarchical logistic regression analysis showed that membership of a farmer group and attitudes had a significant positive influence on reported behaviour. Nevertheless, many farmers considered household needs such as buying food and agricultural inputs, as well as children's education, as more urgent than investing their scarce resources in tree planting, suggesting that poverty is a barrier to tree planting. © 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.