Trade-offs between economic profitability, erosion risk mitigation and biodiversity in the management of uneven-aged Abies alba Mill. stands

Abstract

& Key message Multi-objective forest planning methods were used to assess the trade-offs between three ecosystem services: timber production, erosion protection and biodiversity. The use of trade-off analysis helps to define proper weights for the management objectives and evaluate the feasibility of obtaining economic profit from timber while controlling the erosion risk and maintaining biodiversity of Abies alba Mill. & Context Forests provide several ecosystem services (ES), many of which are in trade-off. The assessment of relationships between ES helps to optimize forest management. & Aims This study analyses the trade-offs between timber production, erosion protection and biodiversity in uneven-aged mountain forest of Abies alba Mill. & Methods Multi-functional forest management was optimized using a simulation-optimization software. Timber production was measured with present value, erosion risk was modelled as a function of stand structure, and biodiversity was dealt with by setting a minimum number of 10 large trees (dbh > 60cm) per hectare as a requirement. Optimizations were conducted for slopes of 10%, 45% and 80% and cutting cycles of 10, 30 and 50 years. Discount rate 2% was used in all optimizations. Trade-offs were evaluated with production possibility boundaries. & Results We found relevant trade-offs between timber production and erosion protection, which depended on the slope steepness and the length of the cutting cycle. Trade-offs were marginal on 10% slope (50-year cycle) and large on 80% slope (10-year cycle). Biodiversity constraint reduced both economic profits and erosion protection values. & Conclusion In multifunctional mountain forest, defining proper weights for ecosystem services that are in trade-off is important for satisfying different management objectives in a sustainable way.

Forest management for optimizing soil protection: a landscape-level approach

“…As expected, a negative relationship between timber provision and soil protection was evidenced by the model solutions, namely, when comparing the two contrasting objective functions -maximize wood or minimize soil loss -, and when analysing changes to the optimal solution for soil protection goals when timber constraints -minimum volume and/or volume fluctuations -were included. Furthermore, the substantial dual price values in every binding constraints for the timber volume harvested, emphasizes the existence of an important trade-off between wood provision and soil protection services, which is in agreement with several other studies reporting this same trade-offs in forest ecosystems (e.g., Baskent and Kücüker 2010;Keleş and Başkent 2011;Selkimäki et al 2020).…”

“…Identifying and understanding the best course of action to manage forest ecosystems resources using mathematical optimization tools is relatively recent (early 1960s), but evolved significantly to the present day along with decision sciences and computer technologies (Vacik and Lexer 2014;Kaya et al 2016). Some studies have considered soil protection as a crucial forest ecosystem service for stand-level management planning (e.g., Keleş and Başkent 2011;Rodrigues et al 2020;Selkimäki et al 2020), but few mathematical models have been specifically developed for optimization of water-related management problems at landscape-level (e.g. Dumbrovsky and Korsu 2012;Fotakis et al 2012).…”

Assessing the Dynamics of Forest Ecosystem Services to Define Forest Use Suitability

“…All dynamic metrics data are provided by the NFI3, while data on the Natura 2000 network is available from the Catalan Government database. We used the equation of Selkimäki et al (Selkimäki et al 2020) to assess the erosion probability and the equation of González Olabarria et al (González et al 2007) to evaluate fire disturbances risk. Cultural services are nonmaterial benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, recreation, reflection, and aesthetic experiences (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005).…”

Sustained timber yield claims, considerations, and tradeoffs for selectively logged forests

“…Fig. 1 depicts the fates of many selectively logged forests such as those in Africa ( 11 ), South America ( 12 ), Southeast Asia ( 13 ), and private nonindustrial temperate forests in eastern North America ( 14 ) and Europe ( 15 ). The illustrated forest is clearly not maintaining timber yields and is thus not being managed sustainably.…”