Cost-effectiveness of silvicultural measures to increase substrate availability for red-listed wood-living organisms in Norway spruce forests

It is important that measures to maintain biodiversity are taken in a way that is cost-effective for the landowner. We analyzed the cost-effectiveness of silvicultural measures that aim at increasing the substrate availability for red-listed (species that are threatened, near threatened or where species probably are threatened but data is deficient) saproxylic (wood-inhabiting) organisms. We modelled stands of Norway spruce (Picea abies) in three regions of Sweden by using computer simulations and a database with substrate requirements of saproxylic beetles and cryptogams on the Swedish Red-List. Conclusions concerning cost-effectiveness of silvicultural measures depend on the extinction thresholds of the species they are intended to conserve; measures that generate only small amounts of coarse woody debris (CWD) may provide too little substrate to be useful for species with high extinction thresholds. In northern Sweden, forestland is relatively inexpensive, so a cost-effective strategy to increase the amount of spruce CWD was to set aside more forests as reserves. In central and southern Sweden, more emphasis should instead be given to increasing the amount of CWD in the managed forest. The regulations by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) could be made more cost-effective by prescribing creation of more high stumps and retention of larger amounts of naturally dying trees. Large-sized CWD, CWD from slow-growing trees, and CWD in late decay stages are substrate types that were particularly rare in managed forest in relation to unmanaged forests. Manual soil scarification and retention of living trees are measures that can increase the proportion of these underrepresented CWD types.