| 1. |
- Brukas, Vilis
(författare)
-
Assessment of timber supply under alternative contextual scenarios
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Forest Policy and Economics. - : Elsevier BV. - 1389-9341 .- 1872-7050. ; 103, s. 36-44
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Forest planners in former Eastern Block countries tend to provide conservative forecasts of timber supply, based on a rigid area control under the legislated rotation ages, and often assuming uniform forest management behaviour irrespective of the owner type. This study, in contrast, explores timber supply in a multi-disciplinary approach that analyses contextual factors and expands the space of future forest management options. Methodological steps include: (i) participatory development of qualitative scenarios, following different trajectories of contextual factors affecting forest management; (ii) identification of forest management programmes at the stand level; and (iii) modelling and economic assessment of future flows of timber at the landscape level. This research is carried out in a case study area (CSA) in central Lithuania containing 37,000 ha of forest, of which 80% is under state ownership. The development of forest resources was simulated for four contextualised scenarios: Business as Usual, Efficiency and Reforms, Ecology, and Climate Change Mitigation. Six forest-management programs were constructed together with stakeholders to describe the behaviour of state forest managers and private forest owners under each scenario. All four scenarios led to increased timber supply, largely due to the high proportion of middle-aged and premature stands in current forests. Notably, the present-day approach of rigid area control prioritises a steady timber supply through an evener age-class structure but largely fails on the last point. Our scenario analysis shows that relaxation of legislative requirements not only leads to increased long-term contribution to economic welfare but also enables achievement of evener age-class distributions.
|
|
| 2. |
|
|
| 3. |
- Brukas, Vilis
(författare)
-
Controlling Private Forest Owners in Lithuania: Rigid Regulation or Advisory Counseling?
- 2011
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The restitution of private forest ownership has necessitated development of new institutions for controlling the management of private forests. This study analyzes the present and the desired extent of control in Lithuania, based on surveys of private forest owners and environmental inspectors. The state largely relies on direct regulation, i.e. owners face numerous silvicultural and environmental restrictions enforced via an elaborate system of permissions. Most respondents provide a fairly good assessment of the present control system, though claiming that its extent and requirements should be reduced in future. Both forest owners and environmental inspectors believe that the currently dominant "controlling regulation" should be modified to adequately encompass "activating consultation". Furthered consultancy and training would reduce the amount of violations in private forests and, supplemented with properly designed economic incentives, promote more effective private forestry.
|
|
| 4. |
- Brukas, Vilis, et al.
(författare)
-
Decision Support Tools and Strategies to Simulate Forest Landscape Evolutions Integrating Forest Owner Behaviour: A Review from the Case Studies of the European Project, INTEGRAL
- 2017
-
Ingår i: Sustainability. - : MDPI AG. - 2071-1050. ; 9
-
Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- For forest sustainability and vulnerability assessment, the landscape scale is considered to be more and more relevant as the stand level approaches its known limitations. This review, which describes the main forest landscape simulation tools used in the 20 European case studies of the European project "Future-oriented integrated management of European forest landscapes" (INTEGRAL), gives an update on existing decision support tools to run landscape simulation from Mediterranean to boreal ecosystems. The main growth models and software available in Europe are described, and the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches are discussed. Trades-offs between input efforts and output are illustrated. Recommendations for the selection of a forest landscape simulator are given. The paper concludes by describing the need to have tools that are able to cope with climate change and the need to build more robust indicators for assessment of forest landscape sustainability and vulnerability.
|
|
| 5. |
- Brukas, Vilis
(författare)
-
Economic Forest Sustainability: Comparison between Lithuania and Sweden
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Forests. - : MDPI AG. - 1999-4907. ; 6, s. 47-64
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The study conceptualizes economic forest sustainability as "the forest-related income and economic well-being sustained over time" and then compares Lithuania and Sweden at different scales. Sweden adopts a holistic perspective of the forest sector, where forestry and forest industries are perceived as a well-integrated economic branch. Forestry is expected to deliver raw material to forest industries, at the same time creating good preconditions for profitable forest management. Forest owners are given large freedom to act according to market signals and their own household needs, while the resulting intensive forest management cumulatively leads to a significant contribution to the country's welfare. Lithuania, in contrast, lacks an integrated sector perspective, forestry and forest industries being regarded as two separate realms. Private forest property rights are severely constrained by numerous legislative stipulations, leading to a significant reduction of economic value in production forests. On top of that, thirty percent of private owners face additional restrictions through forestland zoning, leading to further substantial loss of economic value. We suggest several measures for improving the economic forest sustainability in Lithuania, where a genuine national forest program could serve as a suitable bearing medium.
|
|
| 6. |
- Brukas, Vilis
(författare)
-
Euroforester
- 2010
-
Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
|
|
| 7. |
- Brukas, Vilis
(författare)
-
Expectations towards EFINORD : survey of forest research organisations in Northern Europe
- 2013
-
Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- With only two full-time positions, EFINORD currently is the smallest regional office of the European Forest Institute, while the scope of potential engagements is wide. Thus EFINORD needs to clearly prioritise activities, at the same time doing its best to meet the expectations of the partner organisations, i.e. universities and institutes dealing with forest research in Northern Europe. Clarifying the expectations, this report presents the results from the survey conducted in December 2012 - January 2013. The survey was filled by 19 out of 27 contacted organisations, corresponding the 70% response rate. The rate among the Nordic and Baltic organisations, i.e. setting aside Russia, Poland, Germany, UK and Ireland, was 81%. Key findings: The distribution of responding organisations and their perception of the degree of international forest research cooperation confirm a stronger regional collaborative tradition within Nordic-Baltic countries compared with EFINORD “fringe countries”. Respondents see networking as the most important EFINORD activity that refers to “arranging network meetings and mobilising forest research networks with partners”. Many partners also allocate high priority to fund raising at strategic level (i.e. advocacy for funding to forest research) and project level (assisting networks in application work). The lowest average score was assigned to “direct research activity by the EFINORD staff”, though the scoring differs a lot among respondents. A possible interpretation of these results can be that most partners do not wish EFINORD to become yet another research organisation, but to complement the current organisations by becoming a hub for consolidating international projects and promoting research networking and advocating forest research in relevant fora. Almost unanimously, the partner organisations are willing to consider in kind contribution to EFINORD, by allocating staff internally to work with EFINORD projects. The efficiency of this approach is however doubted by some respondents. In order to function well, such set-up requires a tight teamwork within well-defined collaborative projects. The questionnaire did not provide direct progress in finding core partners to directly contribute to funding the staff at the regional office. The need to complement the funding base of EFINORD to at least reach the critical mass equivalent to three full-time staff members remains a critical issue. Respondents also provide a number of interesting proposals for profiling the role of EFINORD such as: (i) Visiting member organizations and arranging workshops, to discuss mutual priorities, to spread information on European research calls, etc.; (ii) Initiating collaboration between the major national research programmes, such as ‘Future Forests’ in Sweden and ‘Forests and Silviculture in the Future’ in Finland; and (iii) creating a Nordic-Baltic joint research training platform in forest sciences. Such ideas deserve further discussion between EFINORD and partner organisations on multilateral and bilateral basis. The survey has provided valuable information about partners’ expectations, and expectedly increased awareness about ongoing EFINORD activities.
|
|
| 8. |
- Brukas, Vilis
(författare)
-
Forest management after the economic transition-at the crossroads between German and Scandinavian traditions
- 2009
-
Ingår i: Forest Policy and Economics. - : Elsevier BV. - 1389-9341 .- 1872-7050. ; 11, s. 586-592
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Germany and Scandinavia represent two paradigmatic forest management traditions, based on management for volume and management for profit, respectively. This study examines the prevailing silvicultural regimes and resulting economic outcomes in Germany and Sweden as benchmarks, and then corresponding analyses are performed for post-transition EU countries. represented by Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. The analyses reveal a regional gradient where Poland stands closest to the German tradition, Latvia goes through a "scandinavisation", and Lithuania takes an intermediate position. Poland adheres to longer rotations and follows the principle of self-sufficiency, while economic efficiency has gained increased importance in Latvia. The observed gradient is likely to be sustained in the coming decades as the survey of key forest sector stakeholders reveals ideological patterns that correlate with the pace of reform of State forestry in Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
|
|
| 9. |
- Brukas, Vilis, et al.
(författare)
-
Forest management plan as a policy instrument: Carrot, stick or sermon?
- 2012
-
Ingår i: Land Use Policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 0264-8377 .- 1873-5754. ; 29, s. 605-613
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Technical aspects of forest management planning as decision-support have been addressed in numerous scientific studies. However, forest management plans (FMPs) also play a significant, but largely neglected, role as forest policy instruments. We have examined the policy context and planning practices in two contrasting case countries, revealing striking differences in policy instrumentation. In Sweden, FMPs mainly serve for informational steering, with under-utilised potential for providing individualised advice. In Lithuania, the plans are primarily regulatory, serving for effective control but with several deficiencies, notably excessive costs and institutionalised corruption. The study demonstrates that policy analyses can be fruitfully grounded in the empirics of planning practices. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
|
|
| 10. |
- Brukas, Vilis
(författare)
-
Forest owner is more than her goal: a qualitative typology of Lithuanian owners
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0282-7581 .- 1651-1891. ; 30, s. 478-491
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In contrast to quantitative surveys up to date, this study employs in-depth interviews and qualitative analyses aiming to provide detailed contextualized portrayals of private forest owners (PFOs) in Lithuania, where forest ownership underwent crucial changes in the last two decades. We scrutinized narrations of 18 owners, focusing on the background and goals of forest possession, actually applied management practices and informants' future plans. Content analysis of the narrations revealed three classes of goals: ideational rationale, i.e. immaterial justification for owning and managing forest, financial goals referring to monetary benefits from selling forest products and own material use for household needs. Reported practices differ widely among PFOs, ranging from largely absent management to intensive silvicultural regimes. Syntheses of each informant's goals and practices enabled discerning four types of PFOs. Forest Businessmen typically own largest estates (>100 ha) and regard forest as an investment to get long-term financial benefits; they resort to forest management for timber and often intend to enlarge their possessions. Household Foresters primarily use timber for own needs, regularly applying selective tree cutting; such forestry results in frequent but small-scale management interventions. Passive Forest Lovers aspire for recreational or environmental values, being largely uninterested in timber harvesting. Ad Hoc Owners usually are small scale, have vague goals and rarely engage in forest management. The study concludes with discussing policy implications of the identified diversity of PFOs.
|
|
