Olli Salminen

An Internet-Supported Planning Approach for Joint Ownership Forest Holdings

This article proposes a planning approach for private forest holdings that have more than one decision maker, e.g. a heirship group or a joint ownership between siblings. Through a case study example, we illustrate the phases of the proposed planning process and describe the communication and planning tools used in this process. The final aim is that in the future the forest planners’ toolkit would include this kind of approach for rather common situations where it is not easy to reach all the owners for synchronous face-to-face planning sessions. The process started with initial telephone interviews with the forest owners. From these interviews appropriate alternative forest plans were developed. Indicators and their values from the forest plans were inputted into the Mesta internet application. The forest owners were also given guidance on how to use the program. After this they were given time to independently use the program. Once the forest owners finished the use of the program, the results were collected and analyzed. Among the alternative forest plans, one was approved by all of the forest owners. The results of trial use involving a North-Karelian forest holding were encouraging. The main benefits of the approach according to the participants were learning that there are alternatives between which to choose, and reaching a common base level of understanding holding’s production possibilities for future decisions. After developing the process and technical tools further, the proposed model could serve joint ownerships over distance also in practice and in larger scale, and, as a result, foster owners’ engagement on their own forest.

Is enhanced biodiversity protection conflicting with ambitious bioenergy targets in eastern Finland

The study describes how qualitative stakeholder feedback can be used in quantitative scenarios to simulate forest resource use under alternative management objectives. In earlier studies in the region of eastern Finland, stakeholders did not see a possible conflict between increased bioenergy use and nature conservation; this finding is contrary to the results of other studies. The aim of this study was to test with a quantitative modelling approach whether the stakeholder expectation holds and whether forest management in eastern Finland can simultaneously increase biomass utilization and biodiversity protection. Prior to this study, three alternative scenarios on forest resource use were created in a participatory stakeholder process, involving a broad range of stakeholders, with half of them being from research and education. In the current study, a large-scale forest resource planning model (MELA) and a sustainability impact assessment tool (ToSIA) were used to simulate the different alternative scenarios and present the results back to the stakeholders in order to evaluate them. The scenarios were evaluated by stakeholders using multi-criteria analysis. In a survey, the stakeholders indicated that biodiversity, employment, recreational value and greenhouse gas emissions were the most important indicators to them, whereas growing stock, amount of harvested roundwood, energy wood and protected forest area were considered less important. Of the created scenarios, the scenario combining bioenergy and biodiversity targets was the most preferred by the stakeholders as it performed well on those indicators that were identified by stakeholders as the most important. In this scenario, the area of protected forest and bioenergy production were increased simultaneously. With this study we offer a framework for evaluating different alternatives for future land use. The framework helps to identify key issues that are important to the stakeholders so that they can be taken into consideration in future land-use planning. In addition, the results confirm the stakeholder expectation that by protecting more forests while simultaneously increasing the mobilization of potentially available wood resources, both targets can be met without compromising too much other forest functions such as timber production and recreation.

Integrating bilberry yields into regional long-term forest scenario analyses

ABSTRACT In many areas, picking wild berries constitutes an important forest commodity offering food, recreational services, and revenues. Intensified forest management has negatively affected bilberry yields. In this study, regional-level scenario analyses were conducted to investigate the effects of four approaches to the inclusion of bilberry yields on the economics, management, and resulting forest structures in North Karelia. The current approach ignoring bilberries resulted in decreasing bilberry yields and increasing younger forests. When bilberries were valued at market price (1.72 € kg−1), bilberry yields still decreased despite the fact that forest management were slightly modified to favour bilberry. Adding non-declining sustainability constraints to bilberry yields resulted in a slightly lower total net present value of timber and bilberry since forest management favoured longer rotation lengths, which increased bilberry yields. Similar effects occurred when the bilberry price was tripled to include the implicit ecosystem benefits of bilberries. When forests were managed only for bilberries (timber zero-priced), bilberry yields started to increase immediately resulting in 1.5-fold difference in 50 years as compared to timber only scenario. In conclusion, managing forests for both timber and bilberry production has rather minor effects on economics, but it can have clear positive effect on bilberry yields.

Alueellinen metsähaketase vuonna 2030

Anttila P., Nivala V., Salminen O., Hurskainen M., Kärki J., Lindroos T.J., Asikainen A. (2018). Alueellinen metsähaketase vuonna 2030. Metsätieteen aikakauskirja 2018-9999. Tutkimusseloste. 3 s. https://doi.org/10.14214/ma.9999 Yhteystiedot 1Luonnonvarakeskus (Luke), Tuotantojärjestelmät, Joensuu; 2 Luonnonvarakeskus (Luke), Biotalous ja ympäristö, Rovaniemi; 3 Luonnonvarakeskus (Luke), Biotalous ja ympäristö, Helsinki; 4 Teknologian tutkimuskeskus VTT Oy, Luonnonvaraja ympäristöratkaisut, Jyväskylä; 5 Teknologian tutkimuskeskus VTT Oy, Älykäs teollisuus ja energiajärjestelmät, Espoo Sähköposti perttu.anttila@luke.fi Hyväksytty 04.05.2018 Seloste artikkelista Anttila P., Nivala V., Salminen O., Hurskainen M., Kärki J., Lindroos T.J., Asikainen A. (2018). Regional balance of forest chip supply and demand in Finland in 2030. Silva Fennica vol. 52 no. 2 article id 9902. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.9902

Valtakunnan metsien 9. inventointiin perustuvat hakkuumahdollisuusarviot vuosille 2003–2032 Lapin metsäkeskuksen alueella

Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää Lapin metsäkeskuksen alueen hakkuumahdollisuudet vuosille 2003–2032. Hakkuulaskelmat tehtiin MELA-ohjelmistolla. Laskelmissa käytettiin valtakunnan metsien 9. inventoinnin (VMI9) koealaja puutiedoista muodostettua laskelma-aineistoa. Kymmenvuotiskaudella 2003–2012 metsänkäsittelysuositusten perusteella hakkuukypsää ja hakkuukypsäksi tulevaa puuta riittäisi hakattavaksi 5,9 miljoonaa kuutiometriä vuodessa eli 1,6-kertaisesti vuosina 1998–2002 keskimäärin toteutuneisiin hakkuisiin verrattuna (noin 3,8 miljoonaa kuutiometriä käyttöpuuta vuodessa). Vaikka välittömät hakkuumahdollisuudet hyödynnettäisiin kokonaan, puuvaranto puuntuotantoon käytettävissä olevalla metsäja kitumaalla suurenisi lähivuosikymmeninä ja hakkuumahdollisuudet säilyisivät 5,5 miljoonan kuutiometrin tasolla vuodessa. Suurimman jatkuvasti hakattavissa olevan käyttöpuumäärän arvio on ensimmäisellä kymmenvuotiskaudella 5,1 miljoonaa kuutiometriä vuodessa ja se kohoaa 5,4 miljoonaan kuutiometriin vuodessa 30 vuoden tarkastelujakson aikana. Tarkastelujakson jälkeen kestävien hakkuumahdollisuuksien ennakoidaan nousevan yli 6,0 miljoonaan kuutiometriin vuodessa. Metsäja kitumaasta on tiukasti suojeltu noin 20 prosenttia ja rajoitetussa käytössä on noin 23 prosenttia. Suojelu ja käytönrajoitukset supistivat ensimmäisen kymmenvuotiskauden välittömiä hakkuumahdollisuuksia 3,2 miljoonaa kuutiometriä ja kestäviä hakkuumahdollisuuksia 2,0 miljoonaa kuutiometriä vuodessa. Esitetyt hakkuumahdollisuusarviot eivät ole puun tarjonnan eivätkä todennäköisesti toteutuvan tulevaisuuden ennusteita. Käytännössä puunostajat ja metsänomistajat ratkaisevat, miten metsiä hakataan ja hoidetaan.