Mapping policies for surface water protection zones on forest land in the Nordic–Baltic region: Large differences in prescriptiveness and zone width

Ring, Eva; Johansson, Johanna; Sandström, Camilla; Bjarnadóttir, Brynhildur; Finér, Leena; Lībieté, Zane; Lode, Elve; Stupak, Inge; Sætersdal, Magne

doi:10.1007/s13280-017-0924-8

Cited by 32 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…In practice, different policy instruments are often applied together in pursuit of a set policy goal, while reinforcing each other (Bemelmans-Videc et al 1998). As a comparison across the Nordic-Baltic region points out, legal prescriptions for protecting riparian zones vary substantially among countries with similar natural conditions (Ring et al 2017), and legal requirements are indeed an important policy element to consider. However, real changes in forest water management might also be attributed to other more general social, technical, and economic developments than policy tools (Eckerberg 2015), pointing to the need to have a long time series of observations in order to detect patterns of interaction between policy and outcome.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nonetheless, the SFA's other recommendations regarding buffer zones were soft, non-legislative instruments (Keskitalo and Pettersson 2012). The application of riparian buffer zones, in particular, is still under constant debate among the different forest-environment stakeholders (Ring et al 2017).…”

Section: Bringing Forest Water To the Forefrontmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Protecting and improving water quality and quantity in forested landscapes has become a pertinent environmental issue to resolve in national policies globally (Gundersen et al 2010;Richardson et al 2012;Ring et al 2017). Little is known, however, about the relationship between new water policies and their implementation in forest management practice.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Policy change implications for forest water protection in Sweden over the last 50 years

Hasselquist

Mancheva

Eckerberg

et al. 2019

Ambio

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Improving water quality has become an important environmental issue, spurred in part by the Water Framework Directive. However, the relationship of policy change with forest water protection measures is relatively unknown. We analyzed how policy and practice have developed in Sweden using 50 years of historic data from the Krycklan Catchment Study, focusing on riparian buffers. Corresponding to legislation, education and voluntary measures emphasizing stream protection, two step changes occurred; between the 1970s-1980s, buffers increased by 67%, then by 100% between 1990s and 2000s. By 2013, just 50% of the stream length affected by forestry was protected and the application has varied by stream size; small streams lacked a buffer approximately 65% of the time, while 90% of large streams had buffers. The doubling of buffer implementation from the 1990s-2000s corresponded to the adoption of a number of environmental protection policies in the 1990s that all came into effect during this period.

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Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Bringing Forest Water To the Forefrontmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Policy change implications for forest water protection in Sweden over the last 50 years

Hasselquist

Mancheva

Eckerberg

et al. 2019

Ambio

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“…The Water Course Act requires a 2-m wide buffer zone around natural watercourses and lakes, and artificial watercourses that are classified as having "good ecological potential" or "maximum ecological potential" based on the Environmental Goals Act [70]. The ecological condition is determined from biological, chemical and hydromorphic criteria, with an assessment of the biological condition being based on the so-called Danish water course fauna index (DVFI), which assesses the presence of small faunal groups [71,72].…”

Section: Biodiversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability governance of the Danish bioeconomy — the case of bioenergy and biomaterials from agriculture

2019

Self Cite

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Background: The EU bioeconomy strategy aims to accelerate the European bioeconomy and its contributions to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement. National policies and strategies in many countries promote their bioeconomies. The importance of agricultural crops and residues as raw materials for the bioeconomy is increasingly recognised, but agricultural production also contributes to large impacts on nature and environment. With the aim of assessing the governance measures and their effectiveness in addressing the sustainability of bioenergy and biofuel production, the purpose of this study was to map the governance complex relevant to agricultural crop production in Denmark, and to identify the achievements, challenges and lessons learned. Methods: The analysis is based on a review and assessment of publicly available databases, inventory reports and scientific literature on governance measures and their effectiveness. Governance here includes a variety of legislation, agreements, conventions and standardisation. Environmental sustainability is represented by greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector, soil carbon, water quality and biodiversity. Results: The agricultural sector has a significant impact on Danish climate performance and on landscapes in the form of soil carbon losses, leaching of nutrients to water bodies and pressures on biodiversity. The governance complex addressing these issues is made up of a variety of state regulation and co-regulation between state and firms, state and NGOs, or NGOs and firms. Much regulation is adopted from EU directives and implemented nationally. Conclusions: The analysis found that greenhouse gas emission is a virtually unregulated field and additional regulation is required to live up to Denmark's 2030 emission reduction targets. The regulatory framework for soil carbon is criticised for its complexity, its competing instruments and its recognition procedures of voluntary coregulation. For water quality governance measures in place have improved water quality, but it is still difficult to achieve the goals of the Water Framework Directive. It remains a challenge to protect biodiversity in agriculture. Biodiversity is mainly governed by national and supranational regulation, but co-regulating between state and firms and NGOs and firms have been initiated in the framework of the Agricultural Agreement.

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“…In Finland up to about 2% of the total volume of the growing stock is retained in final felling operations (Kuuluvainen et al 2019). An indication of large differences between countries is a compilation of prescriptions on buffer zone widths along lakes and watercourses on forestland in the Nordic-Baltic region (Ring et al 2017), revealing a very large between-country variation. Here we present an overview of research on retention approaches in Northern Europe (Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Baltics states, and NW Russia) with special emphasis on aspects of biodiversity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Research on retention forestry in Northern Europe

et al. 2020

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Retention approaches in forest management are today common in several North European countries, integrated into the clearcutting practice as a way to promote biodiversity and maintain ecosystem functions. Individual green trees and retention patches (tree groups) are retained at final harvest, and deadwood is left at site or created. Here, we review research on retention in Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Baltic States, and NW Russia, with special focus on biodiversity. Following the first publication in 1994, about 180 peer-reviewed articles have been published. We present results from a systematic search of the retention literature, separated into the following topics: buffer zones, retention patches, high stumps, other types of deadwood, European aspen Populus tremula, and cost-efficiency. Russian literature is synthesized separately since studies from this region have so far almost exclusively been published in the Russian language. Furthermore, we describe six ongoing large-scale, replicated experiments with varying retention levels, five in Finland and one in Sweden, and summarize their main results. Among main conclusions for practice from the literature and experiments are that retention patches as large as 0.5 ha and 10-mwide buffers to watercourses are not enough to maintain pre-harvest species composition but survival of forest species is still larger than on conventional clearcuts. Deadwood on clearcuts may present important habitats to saproxylic species, including rare and red-listed ones and a prioritization of tree species per stand is recommended. We identify several important future research directions including switch of focus towards the landscape as well as the species population level. Surveys in parts of European Russia where retention has been unintentionally implemented already for a century would indicate possible future trajectories of biodiversity and their drivers in other regions of Northern Europe. A stronger link to ecological theory would help in study designs and in the formulation of predicted outcomes.

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Mapping policies for surface water protection zones on forest land in the Nordic–Baltic region: Large differences in prescriptiveness and zone width

Cited by 32 publications

References 19 publications

Policy change implications for forest water protection in Sweden over the last 50 years

Policy change implications for forest water protection in Sweden over the last 50 years

Sustainability governance of the Danish bioeconomy — the case of bioenergy and biomaterials from agriculture

Research on retention forestry in Northern Europe

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