Adaptation options to reduce climate change vulnerability of sustainable forest management in the Austrian Alps

2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 694-706 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rupert Seidl ◽  
Werner Rammer ◽  
Manfred J. Lexer
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Forest Management ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Mixed Stands ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Adaptation Options

Sustaining forest ecosystem functions and services under climate change is a major challenge for forest management. While conceptual advances of adapting coupled social–ecological systems to environmental changes have been made recently, good practice examples at the operational level still remain rare. The current study presents the development of adaptation options for 164 550 ha of commercial forests under the stewardship of the Austrian Federal Forests (AFF). We used a comprehensive vulnerability assessment as analysis framework, employing ecosystem modeling and multicriteria decision analysis in a participatory approach with forest planers of the AFF. An assessment of the vulnerability of multiple ecosystem goods and services under current management served as the starting point for the development of adaptation options. Measures found to successfully reduce vulnerability include the promotion of mixed stands of species well adapted to emerging environmental conditions, silvicultural techniques fostering complexity, and increased management intensity. Assessment results for a wide range of site and stand conditions, stand treatment programs, and future climate scenarios were used to condense robust recommendations for adapting the management guidelines currently used by AFF practitioners. Overall, our results highlight the importance of timely adaptation to sustain forest goods and services and document the respective potential of silvicultural measures.

scholarly journals Revisiting the Functional Zoning Concept under Climate Change to Expand the Portfolio of Adaptation Options

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 273
Author(s):  
Samuel Royer-Tardif ◽  
Jürgen Bauhus ◽  
Frédérik Doyon ◽  
Philippe Nolet ◽  
Nelson Thiffault ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Multiple Use ◽  
Management Options ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Adaptation Measures ◽  
Good Communication ◽  
Management Objectives ◽  
Functional Zoning ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Adaptation Options

Climate change is threatening our ability to manage forest ecosystems sustainably. Despite strong consensus on the need for a broad portfolio of options to face this challenge, diversified management options have yet to be widely implemented. Inspired by functional zoning, a concept aimed at optimizing biodiversity conservation and wood production in multiple-use forest landscapes, we present a portfolio of management options that intersects management objectives with forest vulnerability to better address the wide range of goals inherent to forest management under climate change. Using this approach, we illustrate how different adaptation options could be implemented when faced with impacts related to climate change and its uncertainty. These options range from establishing ecological reserves in climatic refuges, where self-organizing ecological processes can result in resilient forests, to intensive plantation silviculture that could ensure a stable wood supply in an uncertain future. While adaptation measures in forests that are less vulnerable correspond to the traditional functional zoning management objectives, forests with higher vulnerability might be candidates for transformative measures as they may be more susceptible to abrupt changes in structure and composition. To illustrate how this portfolio of management options could be applied, we present a theoretical case study for the eastern boreal forest of Canada. Even if these options are supported by solid evidence, their implementation across the landscape may present some challenges and will require good communication among stakeholders and with the public.

European Forest Management Portfolios Optimized for Uncertain Future Climate

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konstantin Gregor ◽  
Thomas Knoke ◽  
Andreas Krause ◽  
Mats Lindeskog ◽  
Anja Rammig
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Optimization Techniques ◽  
Wood Products ◽  
Future Climate ◽  
The Other ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
Climate Scenarios ◽  
Wide Range

<p>Forests are considered a major player in climate change mitigation since they influence local and global climate through biogeochemical and biogeophysical feedbacks. However, they are themselves vulnerable to future environmental changes. Thus, forest management needs to focus on both mitigation and adaptation. The special challenge is that decisions on management strategies must be taken today while still a broad range of emission pathways is possible, and a good decision regarding one assumed pathway might turn out to be a bad decision when a different one materializes.</p><p>With our study we try to aid this decision-making process by finding management portfolios that provide relevant ecosystem functions such as local and global climate regulation, water availability, flood protection, and timber production for a wide range of future climate scenarios. To simulate according ecosystem processes and functions, we run the dynamic vegetation model LPJ-GUESS for the most relevant forest types across Europe for four different RCPs and five different management options. We analyze our simulation outputs using robust optimization techniques to determine optimal forest management portfolios for each 0.5° grid cell in Europe that ensure a balanced provision of all considered ecosystem functions in the future under any of the four RCPs.</p><p>Generally, our simulations and optimizations show that diversified management portfolios are most suitable to provide the set of considered ecosystem functions in all climate scenarios everywhere in Europe. While the portfolios show different compositions in different regions, they are quite similar in adjacent grid cells. The suggested future forest composition in Europe tends to be fairly close to present day values except for Northern Europe where a much higher proportion of deciduous types is proposed.</p><p>Management as high forest (trees emerging from seeds) remains the most important form of management. The proposed share of coppice management is much higher in Central and Northern Europe (~20%) than in Southern Europe, where its disadvantages (e.g., high water consumption and its non-suitability to provide long-lived wood products) are more pronounced.</p><p>A succession of ~30% of managed forest to natural forest is proposed by the optimization as it provides highest carbon storage and surface roughness values. However, this infeasibly high share is reduced if the provision of wood harvest is valued higher in the optimization compared to the other ecosystem functions.</p><p>Current public focus on forests lies often on their potential for carbon sequestration, but future forest management must also address the other services that they provide. This work gives insights on how this may be done.</p>

scholarly journals A Framework for Addressing Multiple Ecosystem Services in Forest Management Planning

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emin Zeki BASKENT ◽  
Jose Guilherme BORGES ◽  
Jan KASPAR
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Forest Management ◽  
Ecosystem Management ◽  
Forest Ecosystem ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Management Planning ◽  
Forest Management Planning ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Forest Ecosystem Management

Abstract Background: Forest policy and decision makers are challenged by the need to balance the increasing demand for multiple ecosystem services while addressing the impacts of natural disturbances (e.g. wildfires, droughts, wind, insect attacks) and global change scenarios (e.g. climate change) on its potential supply. This challenge provides the motivation for the development of a framework for incorporating concerns with a wide range of ecosystem services in multiple criteria management planning contexts. Thus, the paper focused on both the analysis of the current state-of-the art in forest management planning and the development of a conceptual framework to accommodate various components in a forest ecosystem management planning process.Results: Based on a thorough recent classification of forest management planning problems and the state-of-the-art research, the key dimensions of that framework and the process were defined. The emphasis is on helping identify how concerns with a wide range of ecosystem services may be analyzed and better understood by forest ecosystem management planning. This research discusses the potential of contemporary management planning approaches to address multiple forest ecosystem services. It highlights the need of a landscape-level perspective and of spatial resolution to integrate multiple ecosystem services. It discusses the importance of methods and tools that may help support the involvement of stakeholders and public participation in hierarchical planning processes. Conclusions: The research addressed the need of methods and tools that may encapsulate the ecological, economic and social complexity of forest ecosystem management to provide an efficient plan, information about tradeoffs between ecosystem services as well as the sensitivity of the plan to uncertain parameters (e.g. prices, climate change) in a timely manner.

scholarly journals Forest succession, management and the economy under a changing climate: coupling economic and forest management models to assess impacts and adaptation options

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Van Lantz ◽  
Galen McMonagle ◽  
Chris Hennigar ◽  
Chinmay Sharma ◽  
Patrick Withey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Forest Management ◽  
Computable General Equilibrium ◽  
Forest Succession ◽  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Timber Supply ◽  
Changing Climate ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Adaptation Options

Abstract Climate change is expected to have significant impacts on forests by affecting the successional dynamics of tree species and the performance of plantations, among others. Research is needed to better understand how these factors will affect forests and economies in different regions, and how we can best adapt. To shed some light on these issues, we couple an economic (Computable General Equilibrium) model with a forest management (Woodstock) model to analyze the potential climate change impacts and adaptation options on timber supply and the economy over the 2015-95 period in a case-study province of New Brunswick, Canada. We estimate that climate change may have relatively large negative impacts on softwood timber supply (at 26% by 2095), softwood forestry & logging sector output quantity (at 12% by 2095), and softwood-dependent forestry manufacturing sector output (ranging from 6% to 27% by 2095). Negative impacts on GDP may be relatively smaller (at up to a 0.33% reduction by 2095). Adapting to these climate-related changes by planting drought-resistant softwood seedlings or hardwood seedlings in place of failed softwood plantations can reduce these negative impacts. While the former adaptation option is supported using cost-benefit analysis, the latter is not – due to the large incremental costs of growing, planting, and tending hardwood seedlings. Methods developed in this study can be applied in other regions to help guide decision-making around forest management in the face of a changing climate.

scholarly journals Public-Private Partnerships in statutory pension systems: A new interaction between the public and the private sectors

2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 103
Author(s):  
Angelos Stergiou
Keyword(s):  
Pension System ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Swedish Version ◽  
The Public ◽  
Pension Systems ◽  
Point Of Interest ◽  
Swedish Model ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Individual

<p>The article argues that not every publicprivate partnership on the field of pensions is considered to be positive per se; the decisive criterion is the institutional framework within which such a partnership is being realized. The factor that causes them to differ is the  adequacy of the rules materializing a partnership as such. This explains why our main point of interest focuses upon the respective regulative aspects and the necessary/ consequent statutory guarantees. Taking this as our starting point, the Swedish model constitutes an example of good practice. The Swedish version of the public-private partnership in the statutory pension system appears as the best solution for specific sorts of systems, such as the individual accounts. In being transparent, guaranteeing prudent investments and in offering the minimum possible cost for employees, it embodies a wide range of advantages.</p>

scholarly journals The Evolution of NEPA in the Fight Against Climate Change

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Reiley
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Forest Management ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Environmental Policy Act ◽  
Outer Continental Shelf ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
National Environmental

The National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) is the first environmental charter of the United States. 1 Signed into law on January 1, 1970, NEPA addresses the need for overarching national environmental guidance in the country. During the course of its forty year history, NEPA has been used to challenge a wide range of federal actions including the issuance of operating permits under the Clean Air Act,2 the approval of forest management plans approved under the National Forest Management Act,3 the construction of highways under the Federal-Aid Highways Act,4 and the issuance of oil leases under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.5 Given the breadth of NEPA’s applicability, it was inevitable that NEPA would become a tool to combat climate change. The use of NEPA to require federal agencies to take a “hard look” at greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions makes perfect sense because many federal actions directly or indirectly contribute to GHG emissions. Since 1990, in City of Los Angeles v. NHTSA,6 plaintiffs have used NEPA, successfully and unsuccessfully, to challenge federal actions that might have an impact on the global climate.

Potential impact of climate change on the spatial distribution of key forest tree species in Italy under RCP4.5 for 2050s

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Pecchi ◽  
Maurizio Marchi ◽  
Marco Moriondo ◽  
Giovanni Forzieri ◽  
Marco Ammoniaci ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Species Richness ◽  
Forest Management ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Forest Growth ◽  
Mixed Stands ◽  
Impact Of Climate Change ◽  
Potential Impact

Abstract Background: Forests provide a range of ecosystem services essential for the human wellbeing and their ability is influenced by climate background and further connected to forest management strategies. Italy is a well-known biodiversity hotspot but an uncertainty assessment of the potential impact of climate change is still missing in this country. The aim of this paper is model the potential impact of climate change on 19 tree species occurring across the Italian forests using a species distribution modelling approach, six different Global Circulation Models (GCMs) and one Regional Climate Models (RCMs) for 2050s under an intermediate forcing scenario (RCP 4.5). Results: While no sensible variation in the spatial distribution of the total forested area has been predicted with some tree species gaining space and covering the spatial contractions of others, results showed substantial differences between each species and different climate models. The analyses reported an unchanged amount of total land suitability to forest growth in mountain areas while smaller values were predicted for valleys and floodplains than high-elevation areas. Pure woods were predicted as the most influenced when compared with mixed stands which are characterized by a greater species richness and therefore a supposed higher level of biodiversity and resilience to climate change threatens. Pure softwood stands (e.g. Pinus, Abies) were more sensitive than hardwoods (e.g. Fagus, Quercus), probably due to their artificial origin which established pure stands with tree species generally more prone to admixture with others in (semi)-natural ecosystems.Conclusions: Forest management could play a fundamental role to reduce the potential impact of climate change on forest ecosystems. Silvicultural practices should be aimed at increasing the species richness and favouring hardwoods currently growing as dominating species under conifers canopy, stimulating the natural regeneration, gene flow and supporting (spatial) migration processes.

scholarly journals Participatory mapping and collaborative action for inclusive and sustainable mountain landscape development in Far West Nepal

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prakash Khadka ◽  
Wei Liu ◽  
Binod Prasad Parajuli ◽  
Uttam Pudasaini
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Landscape Planning ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
Spatial Knowledge ◽  
Participatory Mapping ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Development Plans ◽  
Mapping Techniques

&lt;p&gt;Nepal is one of the world&amp;#8217;s most vulnerable countries to the impacts of climate change due to its high-relief topography, heavy monsoon rainfall, and weak governance. Landslides are common across almost all Nepal&amp;#8217;s vast Himalaya mountains, of which the Far Western region suffers most, and climate change, coupled with severe under-development is expected to exacerbate the situation. Deficiency in spatial data and information seriously hinder the design and effective implementation of development plans, especially in the least developed areas, such as Seti River Basin in Far Western Nepal, where landslides constantly devastate landscapes and communities. We adopted a participatory mapping process with emerging collaborative digital mapping techniques to tackle the problem of critical information gaps, especially spatial risk information at local levels which compromise efforts for sustainable landscape planning and uses in disaster prone regions. In short, participatory here refers to working with local stakeholders and collaborative refers to crowdsourced map information with citizens and professionals. Engaging a wide range of stakeholders and non-stakeholder citizens in this integrated mapping processes eventually structure human capital at local scales with skills and knowledge on maps and mapping techniques. Also, this approach increases spatial knowledge and their uses in development planning at the local level and eventually increases landscape resilience through improved information management. We will further discuss how this integrated approach may provide an effective link between planning, designing, and implementing development plans amid fast policy and environmental changes and implications for communities in the developing world, especially in the context of climate change and its cascading effects.&lt;/p&gt;

scholarly journals Comprehensive Security: The Opportunities and Challenges of Incorporating Environmental Threats in Security Policy

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 91-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helmi Räisänen ◽  
Emma Hakala ◽  
Jussi T. Eronen ◽  
Janne I. Hukkinen ◽  
Mikko J. Virtanen
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Environmental Security ◽  
Security Threats ◽  
Security Model ◽  
Environmental Threats ◽  
Vital Functions ◽  
Wide Range

In security and foreign policy discourse, environmental issues have been discussed increasingly as security threats that require immediate action. Yet, as the traditional security sector does not provide straightforward means to deal with climate change and other environmental issues, this has prompted concerns over undue securitisation and ill-placed extreme measures. We argue that an effective policy to address foreseeable environmental security threats can only be developed and maintained by ensuring that it remains resolutely within the domain of civil society. In this article, we consider the case of Finland, where the policy concept of comprehensive security has been presented as the official guideline for security and preparedness activities in different sectors. Comprehensive security aims to safeguard the vital functions of society through cooperation between authorities, business operators, organisations, and citizens. We analyse the opportunities and challenges of Finland’s comprehensive security policy in addressing environmental changes through a three-level framework of local, geopolitical and structural security impacts. Our empirical evidence is based on a set of expert interviews (n = 40) that represent a wide range of fields relevant to unconventional security issues. We find that the Finnish comprehensive security model provides an example of a wide and inclusive perspective to security which would allow for taking into account environmental security concerns. However, due to major challenges in the implementation of the model, it does not fully incorporate the long-term, cross-sectoral, and cascading aspects of environmental threats. This weakens Finland’s preparedness against climate change which currently poses some of the most urgent environmental security problems.

scholarly journals Monitoring and evaluating participation in national forest programmes. The Catalan case

2006 ◽  
Vol 157 (10) ◽  
pp. 438-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glòria Domínguez ◽  
Jordi Tena
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Forest Policy ◽  
Monitoring And Evaluation ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
National Forest ◽  
Multiple Use ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Wide Range

In recent years, sustainable forest management has become the paradigm for forest policy. In this context, national forest programmes (NFP) are defined, in the broad sense, as planning instruments to achieve sustainable forest management at both national and subnational levels. The challenges for forest policy is to increase the number of agreed strategies and improve communication relations with the wide range of stakeholders involved, as well as those posed by the multiple use of forests, which are perceived not only as a source of raw material but also of goods and services for society in general. Although the definition and the contents of NFPs in Europe is in a permanent process of improvement, redefinition and discussion, it seems clear (since it appears implicit in several of their principles) that their formulation and implementation must entail a greater involvement of society in the decision making process, and more emphasis will have to be placed on the aspects of participation. The umbrella of participation covers a wide range of different processes and in this context the need emerges to monitor and evaluate this participation. This paper describes the monitoring and evaluation and shows the main results of the participation conducted in the framework on the national forest programme of Catalonia during the years 2003 – 2005.

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