Roderich von Detten

Sustainability as a guideline for strategic planning? The problem of long-term forest management in the face of uncertainty

Forest management, which is the main focus of this paper, is facing fundamental paradoxes and dilemmas that cannot be addressed by long-term management strategies or management concepts, even where the intention of these strategies is to follow a sustainability path. On this basis, it is argued that sustainability is not a suitable future-oriented term but rather a term oriented towards the present. The more complex the relationships between the different social subsystems, the more rapid the social change of modern societies, the more confusing the present situation and the more unpredictable the future, the less suitable utopian, long-term strategies and the attitude and strategy of firm decisiveness are to address challenges. Several suggested management strategies and techniques such as incrementalism, adaptive management and scenario-analysis are critically discussed. The intention of these strategies is to cope with uncertainty and ignorance. With regard to their limitations, it can be concluded that strategic decisions in the face of uncertainty have to explicitly consider the reversibility of decisions and the awareness of their shortcomings in relation to various dimensions of risk, uncertainty and ignorance. It is therefore necessary to look for modes of planning that actively address uncertainty in organizing learning opportunities and permanent feedback control.

Floral composition and biodiversity conservation in homestead forests in Mymensingh, Bangladesh

Continued denudation of forest vegetation in national forests and protected areas of Bangladesh, due to increasing population and other biotic and abiotic pressures, poses a threat to forest productivity and biodiversity. Homestead forests, although mostly in scattered areas, provide most of the total supply of timber and timber products in Bangladesh. This study investigated the biodiversity of homestead forests in the Mymensingh District, Bangladesh. We studied the composition, diversity and structure of homestead forest species through empirical field research. A total of 43 woody perennials and 38 vegetables species were found in the study sites. Banana, betel nut, jackfruit, mango, mahogany, teak and acacia constituted the major floral composition. The abundance of horticultural species was higher than that of the timber species in all the study sites. However, among the newly planted homestead plants, timber species are gradually increasing. This trend of floral dynamics indicates a probable change in future homestead plant structure and composition. This study confirms that the homestead forests of Bangladesh are rich in plant species diversity even distributed sporadically in small areas. With appropriate models, based on both traditional and scientific knowledge, homestead forestry could emerge as an effective means for both economic well-being and biodiversity conservation in Bangladesh.

Socio-economics in forestry

When we started to approach scholars to contribute to thisspecial issue in the European Journal of Forest Researchabout socio-economics in forestry, we already knew thatwe would receive a collection of papers characterized by amaximum of diversity. This was not by chance: The specialissue emerged out of a wish to present a variety ofapproaches beyond the scope of so-called neoclassicalforestry economics, which would focus on the subject ofhuman–forest relations in a wider context—a researchprogramme that lies at the centre of the research agenda ofthe Institute of Forestry Economics (IFE) of the Faculty ofForestry and Environmental Sciences at Freiburg Univer-sity (Oesten and Roeder 2002).

Forestry or “The Art of Flying Blind”. Sustainability in an Era of Global Change

Sustainable development has become the most important normative landmark for international environmental policy. In the realm of forestry, the fact that governments, organizations, and business have discovered this concept marks the renaissance of an identical desire for benevolent forest use back in the eighteenth century. Today sustainable forest management (SFM) is still the leading principle in forest management.

Adopting robust decision-making to forest management under climate change

Key messageMulti-objective robust decision making is a promising decision-making method in forest management under climate change as it adequately considers deep uncertainties and handles the long-term, inflexible, and multi-objective character of decisions. This paper provides guidance for application and recommendation on the design.ContextRecent studies have promoted the application of robust decision-making approaches to adequately consider deep uncertainties in natural resource management. Yet, applications have until now hardly addressed the forest management context.AimsThis paper seeks to (i) assemble different definitions of uncertainty and draw recommendation to deal with the different levels in decision making, (ii) outline those applications that adequately deal with deep uncertainty, and (iii) systematically review the applications to natural resources management in order to (iv) propose adoption in forest management.MethodsWe conducted a systematic literature review of robust decision-making approaches and their applications in natural resource management. Different levels of uncertainty were categorized depending on available knowledge in order to provide recommendations on dealing with deep uncertainty. Robust decision-making approaches and their applications to natural resources management were evaluated based on different analysis steps. A simplified application to a hypothetical tree species selection problem illustrates that distinct robustness formulations may lead to different conclusions. Finally, robust decision-making applications to forest management under climate change uncertainty were evaluated and recommendations drawn.ResultsDeep uncertainty is not adequately considered in the forest management literature. Yet, the comparison of robust decision-making approaches and their applications to natural resource management provide guidance on applying robust decision making in forest management regarding decision contexts, decision variables, robustness metrics, and how uncertainty is depicted.ConclusionAs forest management is characterized by long decision horizons, inflexible systems, and multiple objectives, and is subject to deeply uncertain climate change, the application of a robust decision-making framework using a global, so-called satisficing robustness metric is recommended. Further recommendations are distinguished depending on the decision context.

Strategies of Handling Risk and Uncertainty in Forest Management in Central Europe

This paper deals with different levels on which the challenge of risks and uncertainty is addressed in forest planning—in theory and practice, with regard to the organization of forest management planning as well as in individual long-term decision making of practitioners. Therefore, it first shortly defines the most relevant terms and describes sources, types and categories as well as the basic modes of handling risks and uncertainty relevant for science and planning practice. In the second part, approaches to handle risk in forest management planning systems are described within the framework of the risk management process. The third part of the section deals with theoretical approaches to measure risk and uncertainty and introduces forest management planning models as well as standard economic risk models. The fourth summarizes empirical studies where individual and organizational decision making and planning processes in the face of risk and uncertainty are analysed and shows how challenges of complexity and uncertainty, as influenced by psychological as well as social factors, are handled in real forest management. The conclusions (part 5) point to the discrepancy between the theoretical and practical handling of uncertainty and risk.

Organisationen in einer unberechenbaren Umwelt: Wie Landesforstbetriebe mit der Herausforderung des Klimawandels umgehen

Walder stabilisieren den Boden, beugen Erosion vor, spielen eine zentrale Rolle bei der Wasserversorgung und beeinflussen das Klima und die Luftqualitat. Gleichzeitig stellen sie ein wichtiges okonomisches, kulturelles und soziales Erbe dar. Die Walder in Mitteleuropa sind in ihrer aktuellen Auspragung stets Produkt des Zusammenspiels naturlicher und kultureller Faktoren.

Conflict and Corollaries on Forest and Indigenous People: Experience from Bangladesh

The South Asian nation of Bangladesh, with a total population of approximately 150 million (mill) and an area of 147,570 km2, is one of the most densely populated country in the world. The current population density is ~1,127.3 people km-2 (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations [FAO], 2005), up from 755 people km-2 in 1991 (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics [BBS], 1993). The economy is based on agriculture and the society is agrarian, with approximately 75% of the population living in the rural areas (United Nations Population Fund [UNFPA], 2006). Per-capita land holdings are approximately 0.12 ha (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh [GOB], 2002). Moist, humid, tropical-monsoon climate, with moderately warm temperatures, high humidity, and a wide seasonal variation in rainfall prevail in Bangladesh (GOB, 2001a). Bangladesh is prone to frequent natural calamities and is perceived as a major climate change victim. Forest cover is shrinking Worldwide, despite many efforts to halt deforestation. Forest land and resources in many developing countries are serious pressure due to extreme poverty exacerbated by overwhelming increasing population. The forestry situation is even worse in Bangladesh that biotic and abiotic pressure associated with inter and intra competition between different landuses, conversion of forest land into industrial and other non-forest uses resulted in denudation and degradation of the hills, loss of forest areas, biodiversity and wildlife habitat in Bangladesh. Traditional forest management system failed to improve the forestry situation in the country. Large scale participatory social forestry program was introduced in the early eighties of the past century throughout the country’s denuded and degraded forests as well as in marginal and newly accreted land. Forests are the home to more than half of all species living around including human being. Population estimates show that there are about 300 400 mill indigenous people worldwide (Hinch, 2001; United Nations, 2009; World Bank, 2000). In developing countries approximately 1.2 billion people rely on agroforestry farming. They are recognized as the inhabitants of the World’s most biologically diverse territories, possessor of unique linguistic and cultural diversity as well as they are in possession of huge traditional

KnowForAlp: Übergreifender Wissenstransfer zu Waldthemen im Alpenraum | KnowForAlp: Overlapping exchange of know-how on forestry in Alpine regions

The cold wind blowing in the face of forestry in many countries in Europe grows ever fiercer. 19 partner organisations from seven Alpine nations aim to counter this trend with a new initiative for ...