Conservation implications of exporting domestic wood harvest to neighboring countries

Published Date
Environmental Science & Policy
May 2006, Vol.9(3):228–236, doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2005.12.002

• Author 

• Audrey L. Mayer ^a,,
• Pekka E. Kauppi ^b
• Päivi M. Tikka ^b
• Per K. Angelstam ^c

• aUS Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Risk Management Research Laboratory, 26 W. Martin Luther King Dr., MS498, Cincinnati, OH 45268, USA
• bUniversity of Helsinki, Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, PO Box 27, 00014 Helsinki, Finland
• cSwedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Faculty of Forest Sciences, School for Forest Engineers, SE-739 21 Skinnskatteberg, Sweden

Available online 20 February 2006.

Abstract

Among wealthy countries, increasing imports of natural resources to allow for unchecked consumption and greater domestic environmental conservation has become commonplace. This practice can negatively affect biodiversity conservation planning if natural resource harvest is merely pushed across political borders. As an example, we focus on the boreal forest ecosystem of Finland and northwest Russia. While the majority of protected forests are in northern Finland, the majority of biodiversity is in southern Finland, where protection is more difficult due to high private ownership, and the effectiveness of functioning conservation networks is more uncertain due to a longer history of land use. In northwest Russia, the current protected areas are inadequate to preserve most of the region's naturally dynamic and old growth forests. Increased importation of wood from northwest Russia to Finland may jeopardize the long-term viability of species in high diversity conservation areas in both Russia and Finland, through isolating conservation areas and lowering the age of the surrounding forest mosaic. The boreal forest ecosystem of Fennoscandia and northwest Russia would thus be best conserved by a large scale, coordinated conservation strategy that addresses long-term conservation goals and wood consumption, forest industries, logging practices and trade.

Keywords

Boreal forest

International trade

Conservation

Finland

Russia

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Vitae

Audrey L. Mayer is an Ecologist at the US Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Risk Management Research Laboratory. She received a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and held postdoctoral positions at the University of Cincinnati and the USEPA. Her research spans several areas, including: multidisciplinary sustainability indices; managing urbanization impacts on aquatic and terrestrial communities; and bird conservation, particularly land use/land cover effects at multiple spatial scales on terrestrial bird communities. She took up a senior research position at the Synergos Research Centre, University of Tampere, Finland in January 2006.

Pekka E. Kauppi is Professor and Chair of the Environmental Science and Policy at the University of Helsinki, Finland. He received his PhD in Forest Ecology at the University of Helsinki, Finland. His primary research areas include environmental policy, industrial ecology, conservation of biodiversity and forest ecosystems, climate mitigation and adaptation, and equitable and sustainable land use. He has served as a Visiting Scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria, and director of the Finnish Acidification Research Program in the Ministry of the Environment. He is an author of 150 professional articles in journals, books, and conference proceedings.

Päivi M. Tikka is a Research Scientist working in the field of nature and environmental protection. She holds a MSc in Ecology and Environmental Management and a PhD in Environmental Sciences, both from the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Her research focuses on both ecological and social dimensions of nature protection. She is interested in ecologically effective management practices as well as in socially acceptable policy tools for protection. In 2003, she was a Guest Editor (with Pekka Kauppi) of a special issue of Environmental Science and Policy, “Protecting nature on private land—from conflicts to agreements”.

Per K. Angelstam is Professor in forest and natural resource management at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences’ Faculty of Forest Sciences and its School for Forest Engineers. His work focuses on two dimensions of sustainability research. The first is developing performance targets to assess, and tools communicate, the status and trends of different elements of ecological sustainability. The second is to understand and bridge barriers for policy implementation in landscapes with different management and history in Fennoscandia and former Soviet Union countries. He has published 2 books and more than 140 scientific and 70 popular articles, as well as education materials aimed at managers and conservation planners, and two international TV-films.

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  Corresponding author at: University of Tampere, Research Centre Synergos, Yliopistonkatu 54, FIN-33100 Tampere, Finland. Tel.: +358 3 3551 8380; fax: +358 3 3551 8537.

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