Boreal forest multifunctionality under varying harvesting intensity and forest management priorities

Abstract

Forestry is often directed towards conflicting targets. In Finland, forest policy has aimed to extract as much timber as possible while ensuring continued future harvesting opportunities. Concurrently, there is a social demand for biodiversity and non-timber ecosystem services. To explore the opportunities to combine these interests we simulated forest growth and optimized forestry, for a 100 year period, under two scenarios. The first scenario presents the impact economically oriented forestry (maximizing net present value (NPV)) will have on forest multifunctionality. Whereas the second scenario illustrates forest multifunctionality under environmentally oriented forestry (maximum multifunctionality (MF)). Both scenarios applied three harvest intensities (60%, 80% and 100% of the maximum maintainable yield). To evaluate multifunctionality, we used ecosystem service indicators (bilberry yield and carbon storage) and biodiversity indicators (volume of dead wood and habitat suitability for six vertebrate species). Additionally, we estimated the economic benefit from forestry (NPV). Our results showed enhanced forest multifunctionality due to the use of MF management, which appears to be a cost-efficient tool to promote biodiversity and multifunctionality. This trend could be further enhanced by decreasing harvest intensity. Solutions to this trade-off is very much value based and hence requires identification of priorities and preferences from the society.