Past, present and future of industrial plantation forestry and implication on future timber harvesting technology

Abstract

Plantation forests are established, and expanding, to satisfy increasing global demand for timber products. Shifting societal values, such as safety, productivity, environmental, quality and social are influencing the plantation forestry sector. This is primarily driven through an ever increasing world population, which in turn influences the way nations view the value systems by which they live. More people require more resources-also forest products. Also, the availability of information is influencing the pace of technological development. These changes could result in a difference in the management of plantations that could affect the forest engineering systems of the future. This review aimed to summarize the current status of plantation forests; summarize future developments and possible scenarios in forest plantation management for the various products; and assess whether these developments in a plantation environment could affect the harvesting systems used. Factors influencing the form of plantations include the type and nature of the plantation owner; the change in demand for different and new forest products; climate change factors, including the use of biomass for energy, carbon sequestration and trading; ecosystem services and other products and services; and sustainability certification of forest management. The impact and influence of these factors were summarised into a series of key drivers that will influence the technology used in harvesting machines, as well as the choice of harvesting machines, systems and methods. These drivers were the effect of variations in tree size, the expansion of plantation areas onto more difficult terrain, diversity in plantation design, increased attention towards site impacts and the increased use of biomass for energy. Specific information is provided regarding how the harvesting systems could be affected.

New forest biomass carbon stock estimates in Northeast Asia based on multisource data

“…Our finding of a positive effect of elevation on C d in all ecoregions of Northeast Asia, consistent with two recent studies (Wang et al, 2008(Wang et al, , 2018, can be attributed to the fact that high-elevation mountainous regions are relatively less affected by historical logging than the low elevation plains (Tang et al, 2006) due to excessive slope gradient and small compartment surface (McEwan et al, 2020).…”

“…Our finding of a positive effect of elevation on C d in all ecoregions of Northeast Asia, consistent with two recent studies (Wang et al., 2008, 2018), can be attributed to the fact that high‐elevation mountainous regions are relatively less affected by historical logging than the low elevation plains (Tang et al., 2006) due to excessive slope gradient and small compartment surface (McEwan et al., 2020). Meanwhile, our finding of a positive effect of human footprint ( H 1 ) on C d in all ecoregions but Eco5 (Figure 8) indicates that the influence of human interference on forest biomass C stock can go both ways.…”

Research trends: Forest investments as a financial asset class

“…The role of plantations as only being a source of roundwood for global markets has started changing. The future demand for forest products will most likely be met by plantations that have good conservation and biodiversity standards, as well as respecting the needs and livelihoods of local communities (Innes 2013; McEwan et al, 2020 , Szulecka et al, 2014 ).…”

Management scheme influence and nitrogen addition effects on soil CO2, CH4, and N2O fluxes in a Moso bamboo plantation

“…An increasing number of plantations have been established in recent years to satisfy the increasing global demand for timber products (FAO 2005). As one of the forestry practices that increases productivity, intensive management (IM) is essential for meeting current and future timber needs (McEwan et al 2020). Several studies have shown that IM significantly increases CO 2 emissions (Mori et al 2017;Yang et al 2017) but does not affect CH 4 or N 2 O emissions from forest soils (Mori et al 2017).…”