Ecological restoration methods for sustainable forest use
Coordinators: Yennie Bredin, and Björn Nordén,
Financing: 200 000 SEK
Young, mixed forest in Norway, which is being restored to temperate deciduous forest. Photo: Siri Lie Olsen
As we have entered the UN Decade on Restoration, it is timely to investigate how restoration methods for forests can be applied to increase sustainability and reduce climate risk within forestry.
Forestry in Scandinavia with its intensive harvesting practices has led to the simplification of tree species composition and homogenization of forest structure, thus inducing low resilience of boreal forests to global change. Specifically, climate scenarios for the next 100 years are not ‘good news’ for the large-scale use of spruce in forestry. Increasing storms, and a future warmer and moister climate, particularly during winter, will harm spruce growth and survival over large southern regions due to increased insect and fungal attacks, and increased frequency of severe summer droughts will set back growth and survival and increase the risk of wildfires. In addition to reducing the resilience to climate change, forestry has also been the main driver behind a large-scale biodiversity crisis, and biodiversity is presently under the combined pressures from fragmentation, degradation and climate change.
This situation, while true, is not without possibilities for the forestry sector. The EU Taxonomy proposals and future developments will increasingly push for changes using economic incentives and opportunities such as selling carbon storage capabilities and promoting smart biodiversity off-setting. This also implies that it is now timely to review the possibilities for, and increase the dialogue on, possible win/win solutions based on ecological restoration science.
Forest in Kolås south of Oslo, Norway, where restoration measures are being implemented. Photo: Björn Nordén
The classic paradigm of restoring a reference state of forests is not adequate under a global change scenario. Restoration policies should restore ecosystems accounting for the future changed state, rather than for a past, static, reference state. For instance, there is an urgent need to restore green infrastructure able to facilitate the movements of organisms under climate change that provide spatiotemporal functional connectivity.
This can only be realized through cooperation among all the relevant actors, including forestry.
This network for forest restoration will explore the ecological and economical usefulness of restoration actions such as diversification of forest structure (through e.g. variable density thinning and dead wood creation) or promotion of temperate deciduous forest, through a seminar involving key researchers and stakeholders from Nordic and other relevant countries (e.g. the UK and Germany).
Goals for 2022
Form a core group of researchers from Nordic and other relevant countries that develop applications for forest restoration research projects to national or international funding calls.
Map the interest and needs with regards to forest restoration of stakeholders such as forest owners/the forest industry, and the national environmental agencies of the participating Nordic countries.
Activities in 2022
The network will organize a seminar in Oslo in August 2022, where researchers will present their work on forest restoration, and stakeholders will present their views and interests. The seminar will include discussion sessions on topics such as restoration goals and moving targets under global change, and meetings will be arranged during the seminar to promote initiation of cooperation between researchers and with stakeholders.
A report will be published based on the seminar, summarizing the presentations and discussions.
Long term goals
Continued cooperation between researchers from Nordic and other relevant countries on forest restoration research, resulting in research projects and scientific publications.
Develop goals, methods and applications for forest restoration that promote use of this nature management tool in the Nordic countries.