Historical considerations and evolution of the forest policies for small woodlot owners of Quebec.

XVIII IUFRO World Congress, Ljubljana 1986.

The role of policy in forest resource development.

XVIII IUFRO World Congress, Ljubljana 1986.

Public and private technical assistance programs for non-industrial private forest landowners in the southern United States.

XVIII IUFRO World Congress, Ljubljana 1986.

Optimizing simulation model on forest policy.

XVIII IUFRO World Congress, Ljubljana 1986.

Forest sector simulation models as methodological tools in forest policy analysis.

XVIII IUFRO World Congress, Ljubljana 1986.

Metsän erirakenteisuutta edistävien hakkuiden kannattavuustarkastelu metsäaluetasolla

Tutkimuksessa vertailtiin metsän erirakenteisuutta edistävien poimintahakkuiden ja pienaukkohakkuiden kannattavuutta metsänhoitosuositusten mukaiseen metsänkasvatukseen Keski-Suomessa. Poimintahakkuut ja pienaukkohakkuut ovat menetelmiä, joilla voidaan lisätä luonnonmetsän häiriödynamiikan mukaista pienipiirteistä elinympäristöjen vaihtelua ja siksi ne sopivat etenkin erityiskohteisiin monimuotoisuuden, maiseman tai metsien monikäytön vuoksi. Ne johtavat yleensä vähitellen eri-ikäisrakenteiseen metsään, jossa puuston läpimittaluokkajakauma muistuttaa käänteistä J-kirjainta. Eri-ikäisrakenteisen metsänkäsittelyn taloudellista kannattavuutta puoltavat uudistumiskustannusten poisjäänti ja tukkipuihin painottuvat säännöllisin väliajoin toteutuvat hakkuut. Menetelmän soveltumista Suomen olosuhteisiin pidetään kuitenkin epävarmana. Tässä tutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin tasaikäisrakenteisen metsän muuttamista eri-ikäisrakenteiseksi 40 vuoden siirtymäaikana Metsähallituksen hallinnoimassa Isojäven ympäristöarvometsässä Kuhmoisissa. Tutkimusaineisto koostui 405 kuusivaltaisesta tasaikäisestä kuviosta, joiden pinta-alasta metsämaata on 636 hehtaaria. Metsän kehitystä simuloitiin puutason kasvumalleja käyttäen ja käsittelytoimenpiteet simuloitiin viisivuotiskausittain SIMO-metsäsuunnitteluohjelmistolla. Simulointien avulla selvitettiin jokaisen käsittelyskenaarion hakkuumäärät puutavaralajeittain, diskontatut kassavirrat ja puustopääoman muutos tarkasteluajanjakson aikana. Puunkorjuun yksikkökustannusten laskennan apuna käytettiin automatisoitua seurantajärjestelmää, jossa metsäkoneisiin asennettuilla matkapuhelimilla kerättiin MobiDoc2-sovelluksella metsäkoneiden käytöstä kiihtyvyystiedot, GPS-paikkatiedot ja syötetiedot. Lopulta jokaiselle käsittelyskenaariolle laskettiin metsän puuntuotannollista arvoa kuvaavalla tuottoarvon yhtälöllä nettonykyarvot, josta vähennettiin diskontatut puunkorjuun kustannukset. Tutkimuksen tulosten mukaan poimintahakkuun NPV oli 3 prosentin korkokannalla noin 91 % (7420 €/ha) ja pienaukkohakkuiden noin 99 % (8076 €/ha) metsänhoitosuositusten mukaisesta käsittelystä (8176 €/ha). Komparatiivinen statiikka osoitti, että korkokannan kasvattaminen 5 prosenttiin ei olennaisesti lisännyt nettonykyarvojen eroja. Poimintahakkuiden puunkorjuun yksikkökustannukset olivat 0,8 €/m3 harvennushakkuita pienemmät ja 7,2 €/m3 uudistushakkuita suuremmat. Pienaukkohakkuiden yksikkökustannukset olivat 0,7 €/m3 uudistushakkuita suuremmat.Tulosten perusteella on väistämätöntä että siirtymävaihe tasaikäisrakenteisesta eri-ikäisrakenteiseksi metsäksi aiheuttaa taloudellisia tappioita siitäkin huolimatta, että hakkuut ovat voimakkaita ja tehdään varttuneeseen kasvatusmetsään. Tappion määrä on metsän peitteisyyden ylläpidosta aiheutuva vaihtoehtoiskustannus.

Monitoring Indigenous Tropical Montane Forests in the Taita Hills Using Airborne Digital Camera Imagery

The loss and degradation of forest cover is currently a globally recognised problem. The fragmentation of forests is further affecting the biodiversity and well-being of the ecosystems also in Kenya. This study focuses on two indigenous tropical montane forests in the Taita Hills in southeastern Kenya. The study is a part of the TAITA-project within the Department of Geography in the University of Helsinki. The study forests, Ngangao and Chawia, are studied by remote sensing and GIS methods. The main data includes black and white aerial photography from 1955 and true colour digital camera data from 2004. This data is used to produce aerial mosaics from the study areas. The land cover of these study areas is studied by visual interpretation, pixel-based supervised classification and object-oriented supervised classification. The change of the forest cover is studied with GIS methods using the visual interpretations from 1955 and 2004. Furthermore, the present state of the study forests is assessed with leaf area index and canopy closure parameters retrieved from hemispherical photographs as well as with additional, previously collected forest health monitoring data. The canopy parameters are also compared with textural parameters from digital aerial mosaics. This study concludes that the classification of forest areas by using true colour data is not an easy task although the digital aerial mosaics are proved to be very accurate. The best classifications are still achieved with visual interpretation methods as the accuracies of the pixel-based and object-oriented supervised classification methods are not satisfying. According to the change detection of the land cover in the study areas, the area of indigenous woodland in both forests has decreased in 1955 2004. However in Ngangao, the overall woodland area has grown mainly because of plantations of exotic species. In general, the land cover of both study areas is more fragmented in 2004 than in 1955. Although the forest area has decreased, forests seem to have a more optimistic future than before. This is due to the increasing appreciation of the forest areas.

Community-based Ecotourism as a Sustainable Development Option in the Taita Hills, Kenya

This study aims at identifying the existing and potential resources, as well as recognizing the hinderances, for community-based ecotourism development in the Taita Hills in south-eastern Kenya. The indigenous mountain rain forests on the hills are rich in biodiversity, but severely degraded because of encroachment caused by the dynamics of increased population, socio-politics and economics. The research problems are based on the hypothesis that there is no tourism in the Taita Hills generating income for the local economy and high population density combined with poverty creates a need for alternative employment opportunities as well as for sustainable ways of forest resource management. The data for this study was gathered during two field trips in Kenya, in January-February 2004 and 2005, as a part of the Taita Project within the Department of Geography at the University of Helsinki. The qualitative methods used consist of RRA and PRA techniques, in-depth interviews, a structured questionnaire and literature analysis as well as attendance on excursions and a workshop with conservation experts and officials. Four case areas in the Taita Hills are studied. The study concludes that alternative livelihoods are needed among the Taita Hills´ rural population and community-based ecotourism is seen as a way of bringing financial benefits for households as well as reviving the fading cultural traditions and indigenous knowledge about forest use. The governmental policies, district level development plans and some NGOs support ecotourism development. The Forest Act 2005 forms base for local participation in forest management. The unique natural features, the welcoming Taita-culture and the location in the coastal tourism circle favour Taita Hills. However, this kind of development has its risks, such as too rapid change of sorest usage level and the exposure of communities to an ecotourism treadmill process. The costbenefit ration of marketing for hard ecotourists is generally low and the tourism infrastructure needs upgrading in the Taita Hills. More tight collaboration is important between the different level stakeholders working for conservation and development. Community-based ecotourism in Taita Hills, when carefully planned and managed, could be one opportunity for Kenya to diversify its tourism product supply and for forestadjacent communities to gain tangible benefits on a sustainable basis from forests.

Renewable Energy and Climate Policies: Studies in the Forest and Energy Sector

‪This dissertation examines the impacts of energy and climate policies on the energy and forest sectors, focusing on the case of Finland. The thesis consists of an introduction article and four separate studies. The dissertation was motivated by the climate concern and the increasing demand of renewable energy. In particular, the renewable energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission reduction targets of the European Union were driving this work. In Finland, both forest and energy sectors are in key roles in achieving these targets. In fact, the separation between forest and energy sector is diminishing as the energy sector is utilizing increasing amounts of wood in energy production and as the forest sector is becoming more and more important energy producer.‬ ‪The objective of this dissertation is to find out and measure the impacts of climate and energy policies on the forest and energy sectors. In climate policy, the focus is on emissions trading, and in energy policy the dissertation focuses on the promotion of renewable forest-based energy use. The dissertation relies on empirical numerical models that are based on microeconomic theory. Numerical partial equilibrium mixed complementarity problem models were constructed to study the markets under scrutiny. The separate studies focus on co-firing of wood biomass and fossil fuels, liquid biofuel production in the pulp and paper industry, and the impacts of climate policy on the pulp and paper sector.‬ ‪The dissertation shows that the policies promoting wood-based energy may have have unexpected negative impacts. When feed-in tariff is imposed together with emissions trading, in some plants the production of renewable electricity might decrease as the emissions price increases. The dissertation also shows that in liquid biofuel production, investment subsidy may cause high direct policy costs and other negative impacts when compared to other policy instruments. The results of the dissertation also indicate that from the climate mitigation perspective, perfect competition is the favored wood market competition structure, at least if the emissions trading system is not global.‬ ‪In conclusion, this dissertation suggests that when promoting the use of wood biomass in energy production, the favored policy instruments are subsidies that promote directly the renewable energy production (i.e. production subsidy, renewables subsidy or feed-in premium). Also, the policy instrument should be designed to be dependent on the emissions price or on the substitute price. In addition, this dissertation shows that when planning policies to promote wood-based renewable energy, the goals of the policy scheme should be clear before decisions are made on the choice of the policy instruments.‬