1. |
- Felton, Adam, et al.
(författare)
-
How climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies can threaten or enhance the biodiversity of production forests: Insights from Sweden
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Biological Conservation. - : Elsevier BV. - 0006-3207 .- 1873-2917. ; 194, s. 11-20
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Anthropogenic climate change is altering the management of production forests. These changes are motivated by the need to adapt to the uncertainties and risks of climate change, and by the need to enlist their carbon storage and sequestration capacity as part of global mitigation efforts. These changes do however raise concerns regarding the potential implications for forest biodiversity. Here we evaluate these concerns by assessing the biodiversity implications of climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies (CCAMS) being implemented in the production forests of Sweden. We do so by identifying biodiversity goals aimed specifically at closing the existing gap between the habitat requirements of forest-dependent species, and the conditions provided by production forests, in terms of tree species composition, forest structures, and spatio-temporal forest patterns. We then use the existing literature to determine whether and by which pathway each CCAMS is likely to bridge or extend this gap. Our results indicate that CCAMS will often come into direct or partial conflict with Swedish biodiversity goals in production forests. Furthermore, some CCAMS which are inconsistent with biodiversity goals, such as logging residue removal, are being implemented more extensively than those which were most consistent with biodiversity goals. We nevertheless challenge the necessity of setting the preservation of forest biodiversity against climate change mitigation and adaptation. We clarify how CCAMS with negative biodiversity implications may still be implemented without adverse outcomes, if coupled with conservation interventions, or combined with other CCAMS deemed complementary in habitat provision. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
|
|
2. |
- Lee, Janice Ser Huay, et al.
(författare)
-
No farmer left behind in sustainable biofuel production
- 2011
-
Ingår i: Biological Conservation. - : Elsevier. - 0006-3207 .- 1873-2917. ; 144:10, s. 2512-2516
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Societal concerns about the social and environmental impacts of biofuel production are driving producers to adopt better management practices. Existing certification schemes for sustainable biofuel production are, however, biased towards industrial-scale producers that have the financial capital and economies of scale to meet sustainability and certification objectives. Smallholder farmers in developing countries, by contrast, often lack the means and capacity to do so. Some of the challenges faced by smallholders include high certification costs, insufficient institutional capacity, inadequate financial and social incentives, poor group organization and lack of external support. Drawing lessons from existing certification programs, we argue that proponents of sustainable practices and standards must fully appreciate the complex realities of smallholder production systems. We provide policy recommendations for ensuring that no farmer is left behind in the quest to increase sustainable biofuel production.
|
|
3. |
- Lindahl, Karin Beland, et al.
(författare)
-
Theorising pathways to sustainability
- 2016
-
Ingår i: International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1350-4509 .- 1745-2627. ; 23:5, s. 399-411
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Using a Pathways approach, controversies over environmental and natural resource management are viewed as expressions of alternative, or competing, pathways to sustainability. This supports deeper understanding of the underlying causes of natural resource management controversies. The framework is composed of two elements: the STEPS (Social, Technological, and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability) Pathways approach and frame analysis. Many sustainable development dilemmas are played out in specific places and consequently, the Pathways approach is integrated with a place-based frame analysis. The resulting framework guides empirical investigation in place-based contexts. This theorising about sustainability science can be used to cast light on contested natural resource management issues, in this case mining in northern Sweden. By exposing the range of alternative Pathways to critical norms of sustainable development, we ascertain whether action alternatives are compatible with sustainable futures. The framework provides a way in which sustainability science can better understand the origins of natural resource management conflicts, characterise the positions of the actors involved, identify the potential for cooperation between stakeholders leading to policy resolution and judge what Pathways help or hinder the pursuit of sustainable development. In addition, it can enhance sustainability science by guiding integrative sustainability research at the project scale.
|
|
4. |
- Moen, Jon, et al.
(författare)
-
Eye on the Taiga : Removing Global Policy Impediments to Safeguard the Boreal Forest
- 2014
-
Ingår i: Conservation Letters. - : Wiley. - 1755-263X. ; 7:4, s. 408-418
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The absence of boreal forests from global policy agendas on sustainable development and climate change mitigation represents a massive missed opportunity for environmental protection. The boreal zone contains some of the world's largest pools of terrestrial carbon that, if not safeguarded from a conversion to a net source of greenhouse gases, could seriously exacerbate global climate change. At the same time, boreal countries have a strong tradition of forest management-expertise that could be effectively leveraged toward global and national carbon mitigation targets and sustainable development. Current obstacles against such contributions include weak incentives for carbon sequestration and a reluctance to embrace change by forest managers and policy makers. We discuss possible solutions to overcome these obstacles, including the improvement of ineffective incentives, the development of alternative forest management strategies, and the need to maintain ecosystem resilience through the pursuit of policy and management options.
|
|
5. |
- Mårald, Erland, et al.
(författare)
-
Exploring the use of a dialogue process to tackle a complex and controversial issue in forest management
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0282-7581 .- 1651-1891. ; 30:8, s. 749-756
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article explores the use of a dialogue process to approach complex issues related to forest management. Aninterdisciplinary research team set up an experimental dialogue process concerning the use of introduced tree speciesin Southern Sweden for the purposes of climate change adaptation. The process involved stakeholders at a regionallevel, including those with divergent opinions regarding introduced tree species and their use in forestry. Through aprocess of repeated meetings and exchanges with researchers, the participant’s knowledge was deepened and grouprelationships developed such that the group was able to jointly formulate a set of policy recommendations. Theinvestigation revealed that dialogue processes may improve decision-making by identifying priorities for action orfurther research. However, when a collaborative process targets complex environmental issues on larger geographicaland temporal scales, as matters about forests typically do, a collaborative process must be integrated with externalactors and institutions in order to attain tangible outcomes. Consequently, to fully access the benefits of usingcollaborative processes to handle complex challenges in forest policy and management, the connections betweenpolitical sphere, the private sector, authorities and research institutions must be concretely established.
|
|
6. |
- Mårald, Erland, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
-
Forest governance and management across time : developing a new forest social contract
- 2017
-
Bok (refereegranskat)abstract
- The influence of the past, and of the future on current-time tradeoffs in the forest arena are particularly relevant given the long-term successions in forest landscapes and the hundred years' rotations in forestry. Historically established path dependencies and conflicts determine our present situation and delimit what is possible to achieve. Similarly, future trends and desires have a large influence on decision making. Nevertheless, decisions about forest governance and management are always made in the present – in the present-time appraisal of the developed situation, future alternatives and in negotiation between different perspectives, interests, and actors.This book explores historic and future outlooks as well as current tradeoffs and methods in forest governance and management. It emphasizes the generality and complexity with empirical data from Sweden and internationally. It first investigates, from a historical perspective, how previous forest policies and discourses have influenced current forest governance and management. Second, it considers methods to explore alternative forest futures and how the results from such investigations may influence the present. Third, it examines current methods of balancing tradeoffs in decision-making among ecosystem services. Based on the findings the authors develop an integrated approach – Reflexive Forestry – to support exchange of knowledge and understandings to enable capacity building and the establishment of common ground. Such societal agreements, or what the authors elaborate as forest social contracts, are sets of relational commitment between involved actors that may generate mutual action and a common directionality to meet contemporary challenges.
|
|
7. |
- Rist, Lucy, et al.
(författare)
-
A new paradigm for adaptive management
- 2013
-
Ingår i: Ecology and Society. - 1708-3087. ; 18:4, s. 63-
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Uncertainty is a pervasive feature in natural resource management. Adaptive management, an approach that focuses on identifying critical uncertainties to be reduced via diagnostic management experiments, is one favored approach for tackling this reality. While adaptive management is identified as a key method in the environmental management toolbox, there remains a lack of clarity over when its use is appropriate or feasible. Its implementation is often viewed as suitable only in a limited set of circumstances. Here we restructure some of the ideas supporting this view, and show why much of the pessimism around AM may be unwarranted. We present a new framework for deciding when AM is appropriate, feasible, and subsequently successful. We thus present a new paradigm for adaptive management that shows that there are no categorical limitations to its appropriate use, the boundaries of application being defined by problem conception and the resources available to managers. In doing so we also separate adaptive management as a management tool, from the burden of failures that result from the complex policy, social, and institutional environment within which management occurs.
|
|
8. |
- Rist, Lucy, et al.
(författare)
-
Adaptive management : where are we now?
- 2013
-
Ingår i: Environmental Conservation. - : Cambridge University Press. - 0376-8929 .- 1469-4387. ; 40:1, s. 5-18
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Adaptive management (AM) emerged in the literature in the mid-1970s in response both to a realization of the extent of uncertainty involved in management, and a frustration with attempts to use modelling to integrate knowledge and make predictions. The term has since become increasingly widely used in scientific articles, policy documents and management plans, but both understanding and application of the concept is mixed. This paper reviews recent literature from conservation and natural resource management journals to assess diversity in how the term is used, highlight ambiguities and consider how the concept might be further assessed. AM is currently being used to describe many different management contexts, scales and locations. Few authors define the term explicitly or describe how it offers a means to improve management outcomes in their specific management context. Many do not adhere to the idea as it was originally conceived, despite citing seminal work. Significant confusion exists over the distinction between active and passive approaches. Over half of the studies reporting to implement AM claimed to have done so successfully, yet none quantified specific benefits, or costs, in relation to possible alternatives. Similarly those studies reporting to assess the approach did so only in relation to specific models and their parameterizations; none assessed the benefits or costs of AM in the field. AM is regarded by some as an effective and well-established framework to support the management of natural resources, yet by others as a concept difficult to realize and fraught with implementation challenges; neither of these observations is wholly accurate. From a scientific and technical perspective many practical questions remain; in particular real-world assessments of the value of experimentation within a management framework, as well as of identified challenges and pathologies, are needed. Further discussion and systematic assessment of the approach is required, together with greater attention to its definition and description, enabling the assessment of new approaches to managing uncertainty, and AM itself.
|
|
9. |
- Rist, Lucy, et al.
(författare)
-
Applying resilience thinking to production ecosystems
- 2014
-
Ingår i: Ecosphere. - 2150-8925 .- 2150-8925. ; 5:6, s. 73-
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Production ecosystems typically have a high dependence on supporting and regulating ecosystem services and while they have thus far managed to sustain production, this has often been at the cost of externalities imposed on other systems and locations. One of the largest challenges facing humanity is to secure the production of food and fiber while avoiding long-term negative impacts on ecosystems and the range of services that they provide. Resilience has been used as a framework for understanding sustainability challenges in a range of ecosystem types, but has not been systematically applied across the range of systems specifically used for the production of food and fiber in terrestrial, freshwater, and marine environments. This paper applied a resilience lens to production ecosystems in which anthropogenic inputs play varying roles in determining system dynamics and outputs. We argue that the traditional resilience framework requires important additions when applied to production systems. We show how sustained anthropogenic inputs of external resources can lead to a "coercion'' of resilience and describe how the global interconnectedness of many production systems can camouflage signals indicating resilience loss.
|
|
10. |
- Rist, Lucy, et al.
(författare)
-
Avoiding the pitfalls of adaptive management implementation in Swedish silviculture
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Ambio. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0044-7447 .- 1654-7209. ; 45, s. 140-151
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- There is a growing demand for alternatives to Sweden’s current dominant silvicultural system, driven by a desire to raise biomass production, meet environmental goals and mitigate climate change. However, moving towards diversified forest management that deviates from well established silvicultural practices carries many uncertainties and risks. Adaptive management is often suggested as an effective means of managing in the context of such complexities. Yet there has been scepticism over its appropriateness in cases characterised by large spatial extents, extended temporal scales and complex land ownership—characteristics typical of Swedish forestry. Drawing on published research, including a new paradigm for adaptive management, we indicate how common pitfalls can be avoided during implementation. We indicate the investment, infrastructure, and considerations necessary to benefit from adaptive management. In doing so, we show how this approach could offer a pragmatic operational model for managing the uncertainties, risks and obstacles associated with new silvicultural systems and the challenges facing Swedish forestry.
|
|