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Special Issue "Climate Smart Forestry"

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A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Ecology and Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2018) | Viewed by 27535

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Prof. Dr. Gert-Jan Nabuurs

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Guest Editor

Wageningen University and Research, Droevendaalsesteeg 3a, 6708PB Wageningen, The Netherlands
Interests: bioenergy; climate change; forest management and economics; carbon sequestration; forest inventories; wood products; resource management

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Managed forests in the world play a very large role in climate mitigation, e.g., it is estimated that EU forests and the forest sector currently achieve an overall climate mitigation impact that amounts to about 13% of the total EU emissions. This role can be strengthened much more. However, how can this role of managed forests further be strengthened, either through sinks, harvested wood products, or bio-energy? Do we need to develop incentives and how should governance and accounting be developed to create best synergies? Climate Smart Forestry (CSF) builds on three main objectives: (1) reducing and/or removing greenhouse gas emissions; (2) adapting and building forest resilience to climate change; and (3) sustainably increasing forest productivity and incomes. These objectives can be achieved by tailoring policy measures and actions to regional circumstances. However, there are also uncertainties: the impact on biodiversity of, e.g., bio-energy, is disputed, the albedo impacts are uncertain, and mitigation effects may be counteracted by climate change impacts. This Special Issue encourages studies that address all of these aspects as outlined above or any other related ones.

Prof. Dr. Gert-Jan Nabuurs
Guest Editor

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Keywords

Climate Change Mitigation
Adaptation
Forest Carbon Sequestration
Managed Forests
Bioenergy
Albedo
Forest Governance
Paris Accord

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

Open AccessArticle

Strategies for Climate-Smart Forest Management in Austria

Robert Jandl

Thomas Ledermann

Georg Kindermann

Alexandra Freudenschuss

Thomas Gschwantner

and

Peter Weiss

Forests 2018, 9(10), 592; https://doi.org/10.3390/f9100592 - 22 Sep 2018

Cited by 23 | Viewed by 4672

Abstract

We simulated Austrian forests under different sustainable management scenarios. A reference scenario was compared to scenarios focusing on the provision of bioenergy, enhancing the delivery of wood products, and reduced harvesting rates. The standing stock of the stem biomass, carbon in stems, and the soil carbon pool were calculated for the period 2010–2100. We used the forest growth model Câldis and the soil carbon model Yasso07. The wood demand of all scenarios could be satisfied within the simulation period. The reference scenario led to a small decrease of the stem biomass. Scenarios aiming at a supply of more timber decreased the standing stock to a greater extent. Emphasizing the production of bioenergy was successful for several decades but ultimately exhausted the available resources for fuel wood. Lower harvesting rates reduced the standing stock of coniferous and increased the standing stock of deciduous forests. The soil carbon pool was marginally changed by different management strategies. We conclude that the production of long-living wood products is the preferred implementation of climate-smart forestry. The accumulation of carbon in the standing biomass is risky in the case of disturbances. The production of bioenergy is suitable as a byproduct of high value forest products. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Smart Forestry)

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Open AccessArticle

Assessing Climate Change Impact on Forest Habitat Suitability and Diversity in the Korean Peninsula

and

Forests 2018, 9(5), 259; https://doi.org/10.3390/f9050259 - 10 May 2018

Cited by 24 | Viewed by 4693

Abstract

Habitat changes in temperate forests are more vulnerable to climate change than tropical or boreal forests. This study assessed forest habitat suitability and diversity to determine the impact of climate change on the Korean Peninsula. We used the MaxEnt (Maximum Entropy) species distribution model, three key climate indices, and two representative climate change scenarios, using short and long-term data. Two of the three key climate indices related to temperature were more capricious than the precipitation-related index in the future. In the baseline prediction, both statistical and qualitative validation using the actual vegetation map showed excellent results. Regarding forest habitat suitability, northward migration and substantial increase were definitely distinctive in warm temperate evergreen forest. On the other hand, subalpine forest areas decreased significantly due to climate change; the suitable area for Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) 8.5 2070s decreased by more than half. With regard to forest habitat diversity, regions with high diversity declined due to climate change. In the RCP 8.5 scenario, areas where all three forest types are suitable no longer appeared; however, in the case of RCP 4.5 2050s, suitable areas for two forest types increased, which implies climate change is not only negative in terms of diversity. As this negative prediction of future change is discouraging, active mitigation and adaptation are required to prevent these changes. The sustainability of future ecosystems is still dependent on our efforts. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Smart Forestry)

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Open AccessArticle

Effects of Climate Change and Ozone Concentration on the Net Primary Productivity of Forests in South Korea

and

Forests 2018, 9(3), 112; https://doi.org/10.3390/f9030112 - 02 Mar 2018

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3598

Abstract

Tropospheric ozone impacts the health and productivity of forest ecosystems. The concentration of ozone on Earth will increase in the future, particularly in China and its neighboring countries, including Korea, due to a projected rise in nitrogen dioxide and ozone precursors as a result of China’s emissions. This study aims to estimate the effect of changes in ozone concentration and climate change on the forests in Korea, based on expected nitrogen dioxide emissions in Korea and China in the future. To do this, we developed an empirical model that represents the statistical relationship between the net primary productivity (NPP) of the forests and ozone concentration using historical data; and, estimated the future NPP of the forests under future ozone concentration scenarios based on nitrogen dioxide emissions of the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) scenarios. The analysis suggests that the ozone concentration begin exerting effects to the NPP, about 68.10 tC/km²/year decrement per 0.01 ppm increment. We estimated that the NPP of Korean forests has been reduced by 8.25% due to the current concentration of ozone, and the damage is estimated to increase to a range between 8.47% and 10.55% in the 2050s, and between 5.85% and 11.15% in the 2090s depending on the scenarios. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Smart Forestry)

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Open AccessArticle

By 2050 the Mitigation Effects of EU Forests Could Nearly Double through Climate Smart Forestry

and

Forests 2017, 8(12), 484; https://doi.org/10.3390/f8120484 - 06 Dec 2017

Cited by 87 | Viewed by 13570

Abstract

In July 2016, the European Commission (EC) published a legislative proposal for incorporating greenhouse gas emissions and removals due to Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) into its 2030 Climate and Energy Framework. The Climate and Energy Framework aims at a total emission reduction of 40% by 2030 for all sectors together as part of the Paris Agreement. The LULUCF proposal regulates a “no debit” target for LULUCF (Forests and Agricultural soils), and regulates the accounting of any additional mitigation potential that might be expected of it. We find that the forest share of the LULUCF sector can achieve much more than what is in the regulation now. We elaborate a strategy for unlocking European Union (EU) forests and forest sector potential based on the concept of “climate smart forestry” (CSF). We find that to-date, European policy has not firmly integrated forest potential into the EU climate policy framework. Nor have climate objectives been firmly integrated into those of the forest and forest sector at either the EU or national level. Yet a wide range of measures can be applied to provide positive incentives for more firmly integrating these climate objectives into the forest and forest sector framework. With the right set of incentives in place at EU and Member States levels, we find the current literature supports the view that the EU has the potential to achieve an additional combined mitigation impact through CSF of 441 Mt CO₂/year by 2050. In addition, CSF, through reducing and/or removing greenhouse gas emissions, adapting and building forest resilience, and sustainably increasing forest productivity and incomes, tackles multiple policy goals. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Smart Forestry)

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