Determining the Ecological Compensation Standard Based on Forest Multifunction Evaluation and Financial Net Present Value Analysis: A Case Study in Southwestern Guangxi,China

ABSTRACT

There is growing concern that public benefits from forests are underprovided in current forest management regimes and need to be increased through policy and economic measures that promote conservation. Ecological compensation is a type of institutional arrangement for the sustainable use of ecosystem services achieved by adjusting the distribution of costs and benefits among different stakeholders using economic measures. However, how to accurately and reasonably determine the compensation standard for ecological services has not been guided by scientific methods and theories. This study provides an estimation of the compensation standard for forest ecological services based on the forest multifunction evaluation and financial net present value analysis, and a case study was performed in Southwest China. The results showed that most forest types brought some economic loss to the managers but contributed great ecological benefits to the public when they were managed as ecological forests. It is crucial to incentivize forest managers to participate in voluntary conservation programs through ecological compensation. The results of this analysis can potentially guide sustainable forest management by both accurate quantification of the value of forest ecosystem services and an improved understanding of the costs of voluntary forest conservation schemes currently in use in many countries.     

Reprint of: When peer-reviewed publications are not enough! Delivering science for natural resource management

Over the last century, natural resource management on forest lands has shifted from a singular focus on resource extraction to many foci, such as recreation, tourism, conservation, view-scapes, cultural and spiritual values, sustainability, and other values. As a result, the information needs of land managers must now include social and cultural values. In addition, the public's interest in having greater participation in land management decisions and in generating scientific knowledge has never been greater. The generation of scientific knowledge which is expressed primarily through conventional means – such as peer-reviewed publications targeting academics and technology transfer (e.g., patents, licenses, agreements) primarily for government and industry – does not always satisfy the needs of resource managers and public. In recent decades, there has been rapid growth of methods to help bridge this gap by better connecting new knowledge and knowledge generation with public needs. The U.S. Forest Service is making science delivery as important goal as science creation, including structural institutional changes at the interface among researchers, resource managers, and the public, allocating an appropriate portion of project funding specifically for delivery. The Forest Service is considering increasing its use of citizen science and participatory research – which brings resource managers, decision makers, and the public into the research process to varying extents – as part of the agency's science delivery efforts. Here we explore citizen science and participatory research as possible vehicles to augment existing science delivery efforts from the perspective of a federal land management agency. We found that these mechanisms facilitate public involvement in fundamentally different ways. Depending on the type of research and desired use of research outcomes, either citizen science or participatory research could enhance the use of science in some natural resource management discussions, possibly leading to supportable solutions.     

Developing and implementing participatory and ecosystem based multiple use forest management planning approach (ETÇAP): Yalnızçam case study

This paper explains the conceptual framework of ecosystem based multiple use forest management (ETÇAP) approach and its implementation in a case study area. The new management philosophy has four important pillars; integration of biodiversity conservation into forest management process, characterization and accommodation of multiple forest values, effective participation of stakeholders and the use of advanced information technologies and management science techniques. These components comprise a sound framework of a forest management planning system in Turkey as the ownership, land use policy, social structure and forest ecosystems are unique to the country. Among few implementation sites, some experiences from the case study area of Yanlızçam planning unit were documented to realize the performance of the concept. The liaison between the government institutions and major stakeholders is found necessary, and the effective use of geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) have been realized critically important to better communicate among stakeholders and generate precise database and the plan. The case study indicated that structured participation is an effective communication tool and has a better possibly to promote multiple use forest management rather than using participation as solo information gathering process. Primary challenges relate to the effectiveness of national conservation program, availability of coherent biodiversity data and adequacy of institutional capacity that involve awareness, training and common understanding of biodiversity and protected area concept; coordination among the related institutions and stakeholders, and willingness and enthusiasm of authorities to accept and implement the concept.     

A United States View on Changes in Land Use and Land Values Affecting Sustainable Forest Management

Summary

With increasing opportunity costs of keeping land in forests because of increasing values for other land uses, such as for developed uses, forest ownership may become less attractive for some landowners and the return on investment less viable for both private and public landowners. This raises the question of what will become of the forests and the resources the forest supports, such as water and wildlife, if owners of the forests find it too costly to manage the forest. Land markets provide evidence on revealed behavior about what people are willing to actually pay for a bundle of rights necessary to gain access to land that can provide forest-based goods and services into perpetuity. However, owing to market failures and the nature of some forest land values, markets do not always reveal true forest land values, as discussed below. Allocation of land by use and cover types is a key determinant in sustainable forest management, with changes in land values providing important signals to land managers. Land valuation differs under market-oriented economies, emerging values in transition economies, and administered values in countries with command economies and is influenced by interactions between the environment and humans, including land ownership, use, and management.     

Predivinsk Lespromkhoz: A Case Study on the Collaborative Restructuring of a Forest Product Based Community in Siberia

Abstract

Ecologists, managers, federal forest officials, biologists, Russian and international environmentalists are developing and rethinking the practices and products of a timber operation in central Siberia. Predivinsk Lespromkhoz is a timber producing community located on the Einisei River, 150 kilometers north of Krasnoyarsk in central Siberia. The four thousand inhabitants are faced with expanding costs, a loss of financial support from the government, a collapsed market and disappearing natural resources. The restructuring of the Russian Government gave local foresters and limber operations more control of their resources but unfortunately, inflation and the dwindling economy restricted capital for implementation of new, sustainable forest practices and improved marketable products. Predivinsk is relatively accessible to foreigners interested in the taiga of central Siberia and scientists from the Krasnoyarsk Forest Institute welcome collaborative projects.     

Forest Policy Evolution in Poland

Abstract

In Europe, intensive forest management has anteceded a long history of intensive exploitation. The result has been the replacement of natural forests with highly productive albeit more vulnerable forests of simplified structure. Polish forestry has followed this same pattern and the country has seen a substantial increase in forest cover over the last 50 years. The main challenge for Polish forest management comes in trying to meet growing demand for wood products while responding to increased public demand for conservation of environmental values. Poland's new Forest Act for the first time puts environmental social and productive values of the forest on an equal footing. Within the framework of the Act. the Polish Policy of Sustainable Forest Development puts special emphasis on protection of biological diversity and the promotion of environmentally safe technologies and practices. The concept of Forest Promotion Areas is the major element of the Policy. The challenge for Forest Promotion Areas and for Model Forests will be to bring together all the necessary elements: environmental, economic and social that will allow sustainable development in its broadest sense.     

Relationships between avian richness and landscape structure at multiple scales using multiple landscapes

Little is known about factors that structure biodiversity on landscape scales, yet current land management protocols, such as forest certification programs, place an increasing emphasis on managing for sustainable biodiversity at landscape scales. We used a replicated landscape study to evaluate relationships between forest structure and avian diversity at both stand and landscape-levels. We used data on bird communities collected under comparable sampling protocols on four managed forests located across the Southeastern US to develop logistic regression models describing relationships between habitat factors and the distribution of overall richness and richness of selected guilds. Landscape models generated for eight of nine guilds showed a strong relationship between richness and both availability and configuration of landscape features. Diversity of topographic features and heterogeneity of forest structure were primary determinants of avian species richness. Forest heterogeneity, in both age and forest type, were strongly and positively associated with overall avian richness and richness for most guilds. Road density was associated positively but weakly with avian richness. Landscape variables dominated all models generated, but no consistent patterns in metrics or scale were evident. Model fit was strong for neotropical migrants and relatively weak for short-distance migrants and resident species. Our models provide a tool that will allow managers to evaluate and demonstrate quantitatively how management practices affect avian diversity on landscapes.     

The potential value of agroforestry to dung beetle diversity in the wet tropical forests of the Pacific lowlands of Colombia

In tropical regions where agricultural activities are limited, agroforestry is an alternative for both economic development and for the management and conservation of biodiversity. The potential role of different types of land use as reservoirs of dung beetle diversity in the wet tropical forest of the Pacific lowlands of Colombia is evaluated in three agroforestry systems that differ in canopy cover and the sowing density of Borojoa patinoi crops associated with timber forest. Although total species richness was similar among land use types, differences related to the decrease in the abundance and biomass of the species were remarkable, and reflected in turn by the diversity and structure of the guilds. The general pattern observed was one in which the structure of the dung beetle assemblage of B. patinoi growing below a diversified and permanent tree cover was similar to that of the primary and secondary forest. Beetle diversity in management systems with less tree cover or a high sowing density of B. patinoi was lower and very similar to that of abandoned agricultural fields. This suggests that B. patinoi agroforestry systems can be viewed as valuable instruments for biodiversity management and conservation in the wet tropical forests of the Pacific lowlands and not just as substitutes for forest, though we must be aware that structural changes in the beetle community may in turn affect the ecological processes regulated by these insects in the agrosystems under study.     

鄂尔多斯市造林总场森林可持续经营指标体系研建及评价

研建不同森林经营单位级的可持续经营指标体系是实现森林可持续经营的基础。本文以内蒙古鄂尔多斯市造林总场为研究对象,结合林场的经营状况,采用目标法和专家咨询法构建了4个层次30个指标组成的林场级森林可持续经营指标体系。利用所构建的指标体系采用加权平均法对该林场森林可持续经营状况进行了评价,得出森林可持续经营综合评价指数为0.778,处于基本可持续状态。通过评价找出了影响该林场可持续经营的关键因素为:森林生态系统多样性指数、林地利用率、有林地单位面积生长量、森林病虫鼠害年均发生率等。     

云南德钦梅里雪山风景名胜区生物多样性及其保护

从森林生态系统、物种多样性、遗传多样性、景观多样性几个方面分析了生物多样性现状;从采伐、林下放牧、林下采集、项目建设、森林火灾等方面分析了生物多样性受干扰情况,提出建立生物多样性地理信息系统、坚持封山育林、实施就地保护、加强管理、发展林产业、旅游业等保护对策．     

林窗对南酸枣林灌木层植物多样性的影响

于湖南省宁乡县青羊湖国有林场南酸枣林内的41个林窗和41个非林窗中设置样方,对其灌木层植物群落进行调查,采用物种多样性指数研究林窗干扰对南酸枣林灌木层植物多样性的影响。结果表明:林窗干扰改善了微环境,林窗内与非林窗中林下灌木层树种重要值及多样性存在差异。林窗内的灌木层树种组成数量、累计出现的平均密度、频度、丰富度指数R、Shannon-Wienner指数H、Pielout均匀度指数E、综合多样性用均优多指数Z均高于非林窗中的,而其生态优势度指数λ稍低于非林窗中的。     

Effects of administrative land-use and technical land-form constraints on timber production at the landscape level

Abstract

This study quantified, across a landscape in Eastern Finland, the influence of administrative land-use and technical land-form constraints on timber production. Spatially explicit data about the nature conservation areas, land use plans and steep slopes were integrated with Multi-source National Forest Inventory (MS-NFI) data. The Finnish forestry model MELA was used in the calculations related to updating forest data and estimating different scenarios of timber production with and without constraints. In the study area, the annual volume of maximum sustainable cutting removal defined for the next 30 years was decreased by one-third due to restrictions. The presented approach could be used, for example, to assess timber availability at the landscape level. Future challenges include ensuring the compatibility of spatially explicit data obtained from different sources, identifying the feasibility of forest management operations in the restricted area, and incorporating near-nature forest management operations in the forest planning system in order to estimate the timber production.     

Positive effect of forest structural diversity on aboveground stand carbon stocks for even-aged Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) stands in the Sarıçiçek Forest,Northern Turkey

This study examines the relationships between forest structural diversity indices and aboveground stand carbon storage for even-aged and pure Scots pine stands located in the Sar?çiçek Forest, Northern Turkey. In the even-aged Scots pine stands, 293 sample plots were selected to represent various stand conditions such as site quality, age, and stand density. The stand structural diversity, including Shannon’s, improved Shannon, Simpson’s, McIntosh, Margalef, and Berger–Parker indices, was used to correlate the stand carbon storage values. Positive partial correlation coefficients between stand carbon storage and forest structural diversity indices, including the improved Shannon index (r?=?0.770), Shannon’s index (r?=?0.742), Simpson’s index (r?=?0.703), the Berger–Parker index (r?=?0.657), the Gini index (r?=?0.390), and the Margalef index (r?=?0.327), were found at the 0.01 level. These results offer an enhancement of theories concerning positive relationships between stand carbon storage and stand structural diversity for pure and single-species forests. Moreover, regarding biodiversity suitability and stand carbon storage as carbon sinks, the results illustrate that forest stands with higher structural diversity may be preferred when used to mitigate global warming.     

Biomass carbon pools of Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook. forests in subtropical China: Characteristics and potential

Abstract

Swedish forestry has successfully developed systems for sustained yield production of wood. Silvicultural techniques are today completely dominated (96%) by clear-felling methods. By contrast, Swedish natural forests and preindustrial cultural woodlands were ecologically and culturally diverse, with a substantial proportion having a continuous tree cover as a response to natural disturbance dynamics and preindustrial agricultural land management. If forest management systems do not mimic this diversity of disturbance regimes sufficiently well, the scope of sustainable forest management to include biodiversity and sociocultural values will not be met. This study estimated the past and present amount of one cultural and two natural disturbance regimes known to deliver continuous tree cover in two study areas located around two important biophysical and sociocultural transition zones in northern and southern Sweden, respectively. Several approaches were used to estimate the amount of remaining continuous tree cover forests. The results indicate that 9–10% of the study areas is made up by site types that historically would have held a large proportion of continuous tree cover forests. Estimates for productive site types show that only 1–2% of these sites remain in southern Sweden and 10–20% in northern Sweden. The data indicate that present management in both study areas is similar. Thus, these differences between the regions will disappear in a few decades. To achieve the aim of Swedish forest and environmental policies there is a clear need to develop and use alternative forest management methods on appropriate sites.     

Effects of community succession dynamics on forest biodiversity in eastern mountainous area of Heilongjiang Province

Plant, insect and forest structures of 25 forest communities were investigated in Mao'ershan Experimental Forest Farm and Liangshui Experimental Forest Farm during 1994–1995. The paper used continuum index (C _i) as a parameter, to quantitatively describe forest community succession stage. Relationships between the biodiversity and continuum index of forest community were studied. The annual species and family diversities in forest plant community showed nonlinear correlation with continuum index, and the largest diversities were during the middle stage of succession. The diversities of total insect community and herbivorous insect group were negatively related withC _i, that of spide group and parasitic insect group was positively related. The pattern diversity and coverage weight diversity index foliage height increased with continuum index. Foundation item: This project was supported by Chinese Academy of Science. Biography: MENG Qing-fan (1965-), male, Ph. doctor, associate professor of Beihua University, Jilin 132013, P.R. China. Responsible editor: Zhu Hong     

Plant biological diversity in natural secondary forests on Mao’es Mountains

The forest plant biological diversity investigations were conducted in Laoyeling Forest Ecological Experimental Station on Mao’er Mountains in eastern Heilongjiang Province. Sample plots were six different forest communities. Field works were divided into three seasons: spring, summer and autumn in one year. The results showed that forest plant biological diversity varied with seasons as well as growth forms. Herb species diversity values were the highest in the community growth forms. Diversity indices No,H′ andE ₁ were selected out as the best richness, diversity and evenness indices to indicate the biological diversity in forest community. Responsible editor: Chair Ruibai     

Forest productivity and tree diversity relationships depend on ecological context within mid-Atlantic and Appalachian forests (USA)

Factors influencing the relationship between ecosystem productivity and biological diversity form the basis of much ecological theory. An understanding of how productivity-diversity relationships are influenced by scale of observation and unique attributes of ecoregions may provide important insights to aid conservation planning for carbon retention and biodiversity. Here we use publically available datasets to investigate patterns of productivity-diversity and explore potential factors influencing these patterns in forests located in five mid-Atlantic and Appalachian states. We used a geographic information system (GIS) to overlay multiple publically available datasets including remotely sensed estimates of productivity from MODIS and tree diversity estimated from the forest inventory analysis (FIA) database. We evaluated productivity-diversity relationships using two scales of observation (among and within ecoregions). We also determined if productivity-diversity relationships might be related to region-wide patterns in land use, and if the relationships varied by forest type, land management zones, and along gradients of mean productivity and diversity. Productivity-diversity relationships depended on scale and varied among ecoregions, and land use was correlated with both productivity and diversity. Mountainous ecoregions were characterized by positive productivity-diversity relationships, whereas coastal ecoregions were characterized by negative productivity-diversity relationships. Forest types and management zones that were on average less productive and more diverse exhibited positive productivity-diversity relationships across stands (the most productive stands were more diverse). In contrast, ecoregions and forest types that were on average more productive and less diverse exhibited negative productivity-diversity relationships (the most productive stands were less diverse). In conclusion, regional and local ecological and anthropogenic factors likely influence productivity-diversity relationships and these relationships appear to change along gradients of productivity and diversity.     

森林植物群落多样性与虫害自然控制力的研究进展

讨论了森林植物群落多样性与森林虫害自然控制力间的关系,阐明了森林虫害自然控制力有随森林植物群落多样性的升高而增强的趋势.并认为森林虫害自然控制力的本质是森林植物群落多样性的生态系统功能.初步提出了通过合理地提高森林植物群落多样性来提高森林虫害自然控制力的主张及提高森林虫害自然控制力的几种具体途径,即合理的乔木物种混交;引进和保留乡土的草本、灌木物种;提高生态系统水平的生物多样性;避免营造大面积的人工纯林.     

Is generalisation of uneven-aged management in mountain forests the key to improve biodiversity conservation within forest landscape mosaics?

Context

Uneven-aged management systems based on selection silviculture have become popular in European mountain forests and progressively replace other silvicultural practices. In time, this trend could lead to a homogenisation of the forest mosaic with consequences on structural indices recognised as beneficial to forest biodiversity.

Aims

This study was conducted to investigate the potential effects of a generalisation of the selection silvicultural system on structural diversity in the forest landscape with consequences for forest biodiversity conservation.

Methods

We compared four structural indices (tree species richness, diameter heterogeneity, deadwood volume and basal area of mature trees) in five different stand types typical of the northern French Alps, using forest plot data in the Vercors mountain range. Through virtual landscape simulations, we then calculated predicted mean proportions of stand types under two different conservation strategies: (i) maximising mean index values at the landscape level and (ii) maximising the number of plots in the landscape with index values above given thresholds.

Results

Multi-staged forests did not maximise all indices, the best solution being to combine the five stand types in uneven proportions to improve biodiversity conservation.

Conclusion

The expansion of selection silviculture in European heterogeneous forest landscapes could enhance biodiversity conservation if other stand types with complementary structural characteristics are maintained.