Globally, intensive forestry has led to habitat degradation and fragmentation of the forest landscape. Taking Sweden as an example, this development is contradictory to international commitments, EU obligations, and to the fulfillment of the Parliament’s environmental quality objective “Living Forests”, which according to Naturvårdsverket (The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency) will not be achieved in 2020 as stipulated. One important reason for the implementation deficit is the fragmented forestry management. In a forest landscape, felling and other measures are conducted at different times on separate forest stands (often relatively small units) by different operators. Consequently, the authorities take case by case decisions on felling restrictions for conservation purposes. In contrast, conservation biology research indicates a need for a broad geographical and strategical approach in order to, in good time, select the most appropriate habitats for conservation and to provide for a functioning connectivity between different habitats. In line with the EU Commission, we argue that landscape forestry planning could be a useful instrument to achieve ecological functionality in a large area. Landscape planning may also contribute to the fulfilment of Sweden’s climate and energy policy, by indicating forest areas with insignificant conservation values, where intensive forestry may be performed for biomass production etc. Forest owners should be involved in the planning and would, under certain circumstances, be entitled to compensation. As state resources for providing compensation are scarce, an alternative could be to introduce a tax-fund system within the forestry sector. Such a system may open for voluntary agreements between forest owners for the protection of habitats within a large area.
Habitat loss and habitat fragmentation are major factors leading to forest biodiversity decline. This paper discusses landscape planning as strategy to improve connectivity in a landscape with a heterogeneous distribution of ecologically valuable areas across land owners. A tax-fund system is proposed, that following the principle of common but differentiated responsibility, tries to spread the burden of conservation equally across land owners while optimizing the environmental outcome. Design options of such a tax-fund system are discussed along the lines of a simple theoretical model. Financial effects of a tax-fund system are computed for a small model landscape set in Sweden. Two design questions stand out as particularly important. The first is whether the policy is intended to be self-sustained among the land owners or if the budget can be supplemented by general tax money. The second is whether the land owners or the relevant authority select the stands for conservation set-aside.
This study analysed the cost-effectiveness of silvicultural measures that increase substrate availability for saproxylic (wooddwelling) species. Mixed stands of Norway spruce (Picea abies L.), Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and birch (Betula pubescens Ehrh and Betula pendula Roth) or aspen (Populus tremula L.) in three regions of Sweden were modelled. Inverted costeffectiveness was calculated by dividing the economic cost associated with a silvicultural measure by the increase in coarse woody debris (CWD) and an index reflecting substrate availability for red-listed saproxylic beetles and cryptogams, compared with a reference scenario maximizing economic profit. Tree species had a large impact on the cost-effectiveness of green tree retention: Scots pine was the most costly tree species to retain and aspen and birch the most cost-effective. Tree species also had an impact, albeit smaller, on the cost-effectiveness of the creation of high stumps. It was most cost-effective to create high stumps from birch and aspen in southern Sweden, whereas in northern Sweden it was more cost-effective to create high stumps from pine and spruce. Therefore, when increasing the amount of coarse woody debris (CWD), deciduous trees should be targeted in southern Sweden more than in the north. However, it is important that CWD is created from all tree species, because different tree species support different assemblages of saproxylic species. As regards measures that are not associated with particular tree species, retention of snags at final harvest is a cost-effective measure in all regions, whereas increasing the rotation period is costly.
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