| 1. |
- Felton, Adam, et al.
(författare)
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Replacing monocultures with mixed-species stands : Ecosystem service implications of two production forest alternatives in Sweden
- 2016
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Ingår i: Ambio. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0044-7447 .- 1654-7209. ; 45, s. 124-139
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Whereas there is evidence that mixed-species approaches to production forestry in general can provide positive outcomes relative to monocultures, it is less clear to what extent multiple benefits can be derived from specific mixed-species alternatives. To provide such insights requires evaluations of an encompassing suite of ecosystem services, biodiversity, and forest management considerations provided by specific mixtures and monocultures within a region. Here, we conduct such an assessment in Sweden by contrasting even-aged Norway spruce (Picea abies)-dominated stands, with mixed-species stands of spruce and birch (Betula pendula or B. pubescens), or spruce and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris). By synthesizing the available evidence, we identify positive outcomes from mixtures including increased biodiversity, water quality, esthetic and recreational values, as well as reduced stand vulnerability to pest and pathogen damage. However, some uncertainties and risks were projected to increase, highlighting the importance of conducting comprehensive interdisciplinary evaluations when assessing the pros and cons of mixtures.
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| 2. |
- Lindahl, Karin Beland, et al.
(författare)
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The Swedish forestry model : more of everything?
- 2017
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Ingår i: Forest Policy and Economics. - : Elsevier. - 1389-9341 .- 1872-7050. ; 77, s. 44-55
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- "The Swedish forestry model" refers to the forest regime that evolved following the 1993 revision of the Swedish Forestry Act. It is key to Swedish forest politics and used to capture the essence of a sustainable way of managing forests. However, the ideas, institutions and practices comprising the model have not been comprehensively analyzed previously. Addressing this knowledge gap, we use frame analysis and a Pathways approach to investigate the underlying governance model, focusing on the way policy problems are addressed, goals, implementation procedures, outcomes and the resulting pathways to sustainability. We suggest that the institutionally embedded response to pressing sustainability challenges and increasing demands is expansion, inclusion and integration: more of everything. The more-of-everything pathway is influenced by ideas of ecological modernization and the optimistic view that existing resources can be increased. Our findings suggest that in effect it prioritizes the economic dimension of sustainability. While broadening out policy formulation it closes down the range of alternative outputs, a shortcoming that hampers its capacity to respond to current sustainability challenges. Consequently, there is a need for a broad public debate regarding not only the role of forests in future society, but also the operationalization of sustainable development.
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| 3. |
- Mårald, Erland, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
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Changing ideas in forestry : A comparison of concepts in Swedish and American forestry journals during the early twentieth and twenty-first centuries
- 2016
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Ingår i: Ambio. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0044-7447 .- 1654-7209. ; 45, s. 74-86
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- By combining digital humanities text-mining tools and a qualitative approach, we examine changing concepts in forestry journals in Sweden and the United States (US) in the early twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Our first hypothesis is that foresters at the beginning of the twentieth century were more concerned with production and less concerned with ecology than foresters at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Our second hypothesis is that US foresters in the early twentieth century were less concerned with local site conditions than Swedish foresters. We find that early foresters in both countries had broader—and often ecologically focused—concerns than hypothesized. Ecological concerns in the forestry literature have increased, but in the Nordic countries, production concerns have increased as well. In both regions and both time periods, timber management is closely connected to concerns about governance and state power, but the forms that governance takes have changed.
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| 4. |
- Mårald, Erland, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
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Forest governance and management across time : developing a new forest social contract
- 2017
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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.
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| 5. |
- Nummelin, Tuomas, et al.
(författare)
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Forest futures by Swedish students : developing a mind mapping method for data collection
- 2017
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Ingår i: Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research. - Oslo : Taylor & Francis. - 0282-7581 .- 1651-1891. ; 32:8, s. 807-817
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Forests are an important natural resource in Sweden. They are used for multiple purposes, for example, providing economic returns from timber harvest, conservation of biodiversity, provision of wild berries and mushrooms and recreational benefits. People's perceptions of forests and forest use are currently under transformation due to drivers like globalization and urbanization. The aim of this study was to analyse in particular Swedish university student's visions of future forests using a newly developed survey method based on mind mapping. An online survey with mind map technique was used to collect data from university students in Umeå, northern Sweden. The study focused on features of forests, products derived from forests and activities in forests. The results indicate that students regard ecological, social and economic aspects of forests as important for future forests and the use of them. In particular, the role of non-wood forest products, like berries and mushrooms, as well as recreational features of forests were central to many of the students. The multitude of different visions suggests that forest management decisions of today, directing the future of forests, need to consider the multiple use of forests to be able to satisfy forest preferences also of younger generations.
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| 6. |
- Ranius, Thomas, et al.
(författare)
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Conflicting demands and shifts between policy and intra-scientific orientation during conservation research programmes
- 2017
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Ingår i: Ambio. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0044-7447 .- 1654-7209. ; 46:6, s. 621-629
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Conservation scientists must meet the sometimes conflicting demands of policy and science, but not necessarily at the same time. We analysed the policy and intra-scientific orientations of research projects on effects of stump extraction on biodiversity, and found shifts over time associated with these demands. Our results indicate that uncertainties related to both factual issues and human decisions are often ignored in policy-oriented reports and syntheses, which could give misleading indications of the reliability or feasibility of any conclusions. The policy versus intra-scientific orientation of the scientific papers generated from the surveyed projects varied substantially, although we argue that in applied research, societal relevance is generally more important than intra-scientific relevance. To make conservation science more socially relevant, there is a need for giving societal relevance higher priority, paying attention to uncertainties and increasing the awareness of the value of cross-disciplinary research considering human decisions and values.
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| 7. |
- Roberge, Jean-Michel, et al.
(författare)
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Socio-ecological implications of modifying rotation lengths in forestry
- 2016
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Ingår i: Ambio. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0044-7447 .- 1654-7209. ; 45, s. 109-123
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The rotation length is a key component of even-aged forest management systems. Using Fennoscandian forestry as a case, we review the socioecological implications of modifying rotation lengths relative to current practice by evaluating effects on a range of ecosystem services and on biodiversity conservation. The effects of shortening rotations on provisioning services are expected to be mostly negative to neutral (e.g. production of wood, bilberries, reindeer forage), while those of extending rotations would be more varied. Shortening rotations may help limit damage by some of today's major damaging agents (e.g. root rot, cambium-feeding insects), but may also increase other damage types (e.g. regeneration pests) and impede climate mitigation. Supporting (water, soil nutrients) and cultural (aesthetics, cultural heritage) ecosystem services would generally be affected negatively by shortened rotations and positively by extended rotations, as would most biodiversity indicators. Several effect modifiers, such as changes to thinning regimes, could alter these patterns.
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| 8. |
- Sténs, Anna, 1976-
(författare)
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Forskning för ett reflexivt, variationsrikt och hållbart skogsbruk
- 2017
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Hållbart skogsbruk är en utmaning i en tid präglad av allt större efterfrågan på skogens ekosystemtjänster. Forskning som utförts vid Umeå universitet om skogens sociala värden, inklusive allemansrättens gränser, har påverkat uppfattningen om vilka skogens sociala värden är i ett svenskt perspektiv. Den har också bidragit till uppvärderingen av skogens estetiska och rekreationsmässiga värden. Detta synliggörs i nationella policydokument samt i utbildningssatsningar inom skogssektorn. Forskningen kan på längre sikt bidra till ett mer reflexivt, variationsrikt och socialt hållbart skogsbruk.Forskningen har utgjort en del av forskningsprogrammet Future Forests, ett transdisciplinärt forskningsprogram som påbörjades 2009. Huvuddelen av forskningen om skogens sociala värden har pågått mellan 2012 och 2016. Ett stort antal forskare från Umeå universitet och SLU har bidragit. Den nyckelforskare som lyfts fram här är Anna Sténs, fil. dr. i historia och aktiv vid Institutionen för idé- och samhällsstudier, Umeå universitet.Forskarna har samverkat med en rad aktörer inom skogssektorn, däribland miljörörelsen, Samiska organisationer, myndigheter, friluftslivsorganisationer och skogsindustri.
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| 9. |
- Sténs, Anna, 1976-, et al.
(författare)
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From ecological knowledge to conservation policy : a case study on green tree retention and continuous-cover forestry in Sweden
- 2019
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Ingår i: Biodiversity and Conservation. - : Springer. - 0960-3115 .- 1572-9710. ; 28:13, s. 3547-3574
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The extent to which scientific knowledge translates into practice is a pervasive question. We analysed to what extent and how ecological scientists gave input to policy for two approaches advocated for promoting forest biodiversity in production forests in Sweden: green-tree retention (GTR) and continuous-cover forestry (CCF). GTR was introduced into forest policy in the 1970s and became widely implemented in the 1990s. Ecological scientists took part in the policy process by providing expert opinions, educational activities and as lobbyists, long before research confirming the positive effects of GTR on biodiversity was produced. In contrast, CCF was essentially banned in forest legislation in 1979. In the 1990s, policy implicitly opened up for CCF implementation, but CCF still remains largely a rare silvicultural outlier. Scientific publications addressing CCF appeared earlier than GTR studies, but with less focus on the effects on biodiversity. Ecological scientists promoted CCF in certain areas, but knowledge from other disciplines and other socio-political factors appear to have been more important than ecological arguments in the case of CCF. The wide uptake of GTR was enhanced by its consistency with the silvicultural knowledge and normative values that forest managers had adopted for almost a century, whereas CCF challenged those ideas. Public pressure and institutional requirements were also key to GTR implementation but were not in place for CCF. Thus, scientific ecological knowledge may play an important role for policy uptake and development, but knowledge from other research disciplines and socio-political factors are also important.
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| 10. |
- Sténs, Anna, 1976-, et al.
(författare)
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In the eye of the stakeholder : the challenges of governing social forest values
- 2016
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Ingår i: Ambio. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0044-7447 .- 1654-7209. ; 45:2, s. 87-99
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study examines which kinds of social benefits derived from forests are emphasised by Swedish stakeholders and what governance modes and management tools they accept. Our study shows that there exists a great variety among stakeholders’ perceptions of forests’ social values, where tourism and recreation is the most common reference. There are also differences in preferred governance modes and management where biomass and bioenergy sectors advocate business as usual (i.e. framework regulations and voluntarism) and other stakeholders demand rigid tools (i.e. coercion and targeting) and improved landscape planning. This divide will have implications for future policy orientations and require deliberative policy processes and improved dialogue among stakeholders and authorities. We suggest that there is a potential for these improvements, since actors from almost all stakeholder groups support local influence on governance and management, acknowledged and maintained either by the authorities, i.e. targeting, or by the stakeholders themselves, i.e. voluntarism.
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