Kestävä, ilmastoneutraali ja resurssitehokas metsäbiotalous

Kestävällä metsäbiotaloudella tarkoitetaan metsien kestävää hoitoa ja käyttöä metsien ja metsäluonnonvarojen hyödyntämiseen perustuviin tuotteisiin ja palveluihin. Metsäbiotalouden uudet investoinnit ja kasvu sekä monipuolistuminen tuovat alalle uusia työpaikkoja. Kasvava puun kysyntä lisää metsänomistajien puunmyyntituloja ja tuo kerrannaisvaikutuksineen lisää hyvinvointia koko yhteiskunnalle. Toisaalta puun lisääntyvä käyttö herättää huolta kotimaisen puun riittävyydestä ja saatavuudesta ympäri vuoden. Huolta herättää myös lisääntyvien hakkuiden vaikutukset metsien monimuotoisuus- ja virkistyskäyttöarvoihin sekä metsien vesistö- ja ilmastovaikutuksiin

Forest Bioeconomy and Climate Change

Climate change, global population growth, declining natural resources and the loss of biodiversity challenge us to move towards a global bioeconomy, based on the sustainable utilisation of renewable natural resources in the production of energy, products and services. The linear economic model based on fossil raw materials and products is coming to an end. Major global agreements and policy goals––the Paris Climate Agreement and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals––have given licence for our economic model to be changed. There is the need for a new economic paradigm that will place the basis for human prosperity within the planetary boundaries. One essential part of this new paradigm has to be a forest-based circular bioeconomy. The shift to this bio-based economic paradigm should be a long-term strategy for decoupling economic growth from climate change and environmental degradation. Developments in science and technology are laying the foundations for the bioeconomic age. Bio-based products have already emerged that can substitute for fossilbased materials, such as plastics, chemicals, textiles, cement and many other materials. Now, the big question is how to turn these scientific and technological successes into a global economic paradigm shift, and in a sustainable way. This requires us to look at the potential synergies and trade-offs that such a change will inevitably bring and how these can be integrated with the economic, ecological and social goals of society. Right now, we know that climate change will take place in this century, although there is uncertainty as to the degree of disruption it will bring. It will have an impact on forests. Like humans, trees are mortal. Climate change threatens to increase the mortality rate of trees. Disturbances, such as droughts, fires, storms and bark- beetle outbreaks, have already become stronger, more extensive and more damaging. This trend requires us to adapt to climate change and to build resilience in our forests against climate change. So, how can we do this? These themes and questions are the focus of this book, which builds upon recent scientific evidence concerning forests and climate change, and examines how the development of a forest bioeconomy can help to address the grand challenges of our time. In the book, experts analyse the economic, ecological and social dimensions of forests and climate change, along with the basis for, and shaping of, a forest-based bioeconomy, and the links between these. In this way, it provides information on the potential of forests and forest-based products to help in mitigating climate change, and the types of measures that can be taken to adapt forests to climate change, thereby building forest resilience. The book outlines a climate-smart forestry approach, based on three main objectives. First, reducing net emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Second, adapting and building forest resilience to climate change. Third, sustainably increasing forest productivity and economic welfare based on forestry. The climate-smart forestry approach is illustrated by case studies from Czech Republic, Finland, Germany and Spain––countries that have quite different forests and forest sectors. Finally, we suggest the types of policy measures required to address the challenges of developing, and increase the opportunities associated with, a sustainable forest bioeconomy. To the best of our understanding, this is the first book devoted to examining the links between climate change and a forest bioeconomy, and outlining the need for a climate-smart forestry approach to address the many needs we have for forests. The book is directed at forest- and environment-sector stakeholders and decision- makers, as well as the research community, the broader education sector and the media.Non peer reviewe

Rooted shoot cuttings from SE donor plants in Finland – potential material for breeding and propagation

Poster presentation: IUFRO Seed Orchard Conference 2017 September 4-5, 2017, Bålsta, Sweden201

The climate change mitigation potential of forest biomass production and its utilization in Finland

201

Does expanding wood use in construction and textile markets contribute to climate change mitigation?

Wood use is expanding to new markets, driven by the need to substitute fossil-intensive products and energy. Wood products can contribute to climate change mitigation, if they have a lower fossil footprint than alternative products serving the same function. However, the climate change mitigation potential is contingent on the net fossil and biogenic emissions over time, as well as the realism of the counterfactual scenario and market assumptions. This study aims to improve the consistency of assessing the avoided fossil emissions attributed to changes in wood use, and to estimate the additional mitigation potential of increased wood use in construction and textile markets based on wood harvested in Finland. The results show that, compared to baseline, an increase in the market share of wood leads to an increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration by 2050. Thus, the substitution impacts of wood use are not large enough to compensate for the reduction in forest carbon sinks in the short and medium term. This outcome is further aggravated, considering the decarbonization of the energy sector driven by the Paris Agreement, which lowers the fossil emissions of competing sectors more than those of the forest sector. The expected decarbonization is a highly desirable trend, but it will further lengthen the carbon parity period associated with an increase in wood harvest. This creates a strong motive to pursue shifts in wood uses instead of merely expanding all wood uses.Peer reviewe

Early Field Performance of Small-Sized Silver Birch and Scots Pine Container Seedlings at Different Planting Depths

Deep planting is recommended in Nordic countries only for normal-sized container seedlings planted on mounds. Its effects on smaller-sized seedlings are poorly understood. We studied the effects of planting depth on the early field performance of small-sized silver birch (Betula pendula Roth) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) container seedlings. Silver birch seedlings (mean height of 16 cm) were planted to depths of 3, 6 and 8 cm on spot mounds in May 2016. Scots pine seedlings (mean height of 9 cm) were planted to depths of 2, 5 and 8 cm on inverted mounds in September 2018 and May 2019. At the end of the first growing season, the deeper-planted birch seedlings were the tallest, as opposed to the deeper-planted Scots pine seedlings. However, the height differences between the planting depths were not apparent until the end of the second growing season in both tree species. Deeper planting decreased damage in Scots pine seedlings in the first growing season, which was not observed in silver birch. Based on our findings, small-sized Scots pine and silver birch seedlings can be planted safely at 6–8 cm planting depths, if at least 20% and 50% of their shoots, respectively, are above ground

Identifying Nutrient Export Hotspots Using a Spatially Distributed Model in Boreal-Forested Catchments

The implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) aimed to reduce nutrient export from catchments to water courses. Forest operations cause diffuse loading, which challenges the efficient targeting of water protection measures. We formed 100 equally probable clear-cut scenarios, to investigate how the location of the clear-cuts influenced the total nitrogen (TN) and phosphorous (TP) export on different scales. The nutrient export was calculated by using a distributed nutrient export model (NutSpaFHy). The clear-cut-induced excess TN and TP exports varied by 4.2%–5.5% and 5.0%–6.5%, respectively, between the clear-cut scenarios. We analyzed how the sub-catchment characteristics regulated the background export. The results also suggested that there was no single sub-catchment feature, which explained the variation in the TN and TP exports. There were clear differences in the background export and in the clear-cut-induced export between the sub-catchments. We also found that only 5% of the forest area could contribute up to half of the total nutrient export. Based on our results, we presented a conceptual planning framework, which applied the model results to finding areas where the nutrient export was high. Application of this information could improve the overall effectiveness of the water protection measures used in forestry

Climate-smart forestry case study: Finland

Non peer reviewe