Climate targets in European timber-producing countries conflict with goals on forest ecosystem services and biodiversity
Blattert, C., Mönkkönen, M., Burgas, D., Di Fulvio, F., Toraño Caicoya, A., Vergarechea, M., Klein, J., Hartikainen, M., Antón-Fernández, C., Astrup, R., Emmerich, M., Forsell, N., Lukkarinen, J., Lundström, J., Pitzén, S., Poschenrieder, W., Primmer, E., Snäll, T., & Eyvindson, K. (2023). Climate targets in European timber-producing countries conflict with goals on forest ecosystem services and biodiversity. Communications Earth and Environment, 4, Article 119. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-00771-z
Published in
Communications Earth and EnvironmentAuthors
Date
2023Discipline
Hyvinvoinnin tutkimuksen yhteisöEkologia ja evoluutiobiologiaResurssiviisausyhteisöSchool of WellbeingEcology and Evolutionary BiologySchool of Resource WisdomCopyright
© The Author(s) 2023
The European Union (EU) set clear climate change mitigation targets to reach climate neutrality, accounting for forests and their woody biomass resources. We investigated the consequences of increased harvest demands resulting from EU climate targets. We analysed the impacts on national policy objectives for forest ecosystem services and biodiversity through empirical forest simulation and multi-objective optimization methods. We show that key European timber-producing countries – Finland, Sweden, Germany (Bavaria) – cannot fulfil the increased harvest demands linked to the ambitious 1.5°C target. Potentials for harvest increase only exists in the studied region Norway. However, focusing on EU climate targets conflicts with several national policies and causes adverse effects on multiple ecosystem services and biodiversity. We argue that the role of forests and their timber resources in achieving climate targets and societal decarbonization should not be overstated. Our study provides insight for other European countries challenged by conflicting policies and supports policymakers.
...
Publisher
Nature Publishing GroupISSN Search the Publication Forum
2662-4435Keywords
Publication in research information system
https://converis.jyu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/182817645
Metadata
Show full item recordCollections
Additional information about funding
We thank PhD Karthik Sindhya (Silo AI) for providing us valuable insights and support in multi-objective optimization. This work was conducted within the project MultiForest, which is supported under the umbrella of ERA-NET Cofund ForestValue by: Academy of Finland, Business Finland, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment & Water Management (Austria), Agency for Renewable Resources (Germany), Research Council of Norway, Vinnova (2018-04982; Sweden). ForestValue has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 773324. ...License
Related items
Showing items with similar title or keywords.
-
More is more? : Forest management allocation at different spatial scales to mitigate conflicts between ecosystem services
Pohjanmies, Tähti; Eyvindson, Kyle; Triviño, María; Mönkkönen, Mikko (Springer Netherlands, 2017)Context: Multi-objective management can mitigate conflicts among land-use objectives. However, the effectiveness of a multi-objective solution depends on the spatial scale at which land-use is optimized. This is because ... -
Trade-offs among intensive forestry, ecosystem services and biodiversity in boreal forests
Pohjanmies, Tähti (University of Jyväskylä, 2018)Finnish forests are used extensively for timber production but are also providers of other ecosystem services and harbor unique biodiversity. The ecosystem services approach has so far been used marginally in the context ... -
The effect of different forest management regimes on the ecosystem services and biodiversity of Finnish boreal forests
Salokannas, Jenni (2019)Talousmetsien hoito ja tasaikäisrakenteinen metsänkasvatus ovat muuttaneet metsien rakennetta, ja vähentäneet monien metsälajien elinympäristöjen määrää. Tämä yhdessä Suomen kasvaneen hakkuutavoitteen kanssa vaikuttaa ... -
Impacts of forestry on boreal forests : An ecosystem services perspective
Pohjanmies, Tähti; Triviño, María; Le tortorec, Eric; Mazziotta, Adriano; Snäll, Tord; Mönkkönen, Mikko (Springer, 2017)Forests are widely recognized as major providers of ecosystem services, including timber, other forest products, recreation, regulation of water, soil and air quality, and climate change mitigation. Extensive tracts of ... -
Sectoral policies cause incoherence in forest management and ecosystem service provisioning
Blattert, Clemens; Eyvindson, Kyle; Hartikainen, Markus; Burgas, Daniel; Potterf, Maria; Lukkarinen, Jani; Snäll, Tord; Toraño-Caicoya, Astor; Mönkkönen, Mikko (Elsevier BV, 2022)Various national policies guide forest use, but often with competing policy objectives leading to divergent management paradigms. Incoherent policies may negatively impact the sustainable provision of forest ecosystem ...