Adaptive Management as a Vehicle to Achieve Sustainability of Boreal Forests : A Historical Review from Fennoscandia to Minnesota

Abstract

Located solely in the northern hemisphere, boreal forests contain an estimated one-third of Earth’s forested land. The purpose of this work aimed at reviewing the evolution of approaches in land planning and management of boreal forests in Finland and Northern Sweden, while comparing these to those developed in Minnesota. The nature of this work is historical research of forests use and management during the last 200 years. The knowledge from past histories is valuable to improve management approaches that aim at retaining the economic viability of logging, without jeopardizing the regenerative capabilities of forest ecosystems. Various methods and restoration efforts aimed at recovering from unsustainable biodiversity losses, created by past, uncontrolled tree harvesting, were assessed. Challenges and successes were presented in this work from both geographic regions, highlighting policy making and effective management approaches. Also, a new model framed within ecological memory to improve management practices toward sustainability of boreal forests was proposed.