Spatial harvest scheduling approach for areas involving multiple ownership

Published Date
Forest Policy and Economics
January 2003, Vol.5(1):27–38, doi:10.1016/S1389-9341(02)00044-8

• Author 

• Juha Jumppanen ^a
• Mikko Kurttila ^b,,
• Timo Pukkala ^c
• Janne Uuttera ^d

• aMetsämannut Oy, P.O. Box 314, FIN-33101 Tampere, Finland
• bFinnish Forest Research Institute, Joensuu Research Centre, P.O. Box 68, FIN-80101 Joensuu, Finland
• cFaculty of Forestry, University of Joensuu, P.O. Box 111, FIN-80101 Joensuu, Finland
• dForestry Development Centre Tapio, Soidinkuja 4, FIN-00700 Helsinki, Finland

Received 23 November 2001. Revised 8 March 2002. Accepted 28 March 2002. Available online 14 May 2002. 

Abstract

This study presents a practical harvest scheduling approach for multiple ownership planning. The approach has both spatial and non-spatial goals, namely, a spatial landscape-level goal to cluster ecologically valuable resources is considered simultaneously with timber production goals. Harvest scheduling is based on the location of the stand, on one hand, and on an economic variable depicting the cutting maturity of the stand, on the other hand. Proximity to valuable resources decreases the likelihood that the stand is cut. Therefore, harvests tend to be located outside potential resource clusters with small and isolated economically mature stands being cut first. In the application of the approach the landscape-level spatial objective was to cluster old forest stands (age⩾80) and simultaneously maintain a predefined cutting volume. A stand's economic cutting maturity was measured with value increment percentage. In the top-down application of the approach the timber harvest target was specified only for the whole planning area. In the bottom-up application it was specified separately for individual holdings, aiming at promoting the acceptability of the plan. The presented approach was clearly able to cluster old forest patches. In the case study area, the mean size of old forest patches increased from 3.4 to 5.7 ha in 30 years in the top-down plan, and to 4.6 ha in the bottom-up plan. An application of the current planning practice (referred to as the reference plan) decreased the mean patch size to 2.9 ha. The presented approach is easy to apply in forest planning practice.

Keywords

Forest planning

Private forest holdings

Resource clustering

Spatial objectives

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• *
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