Abstract
Climate-smart forestry (CSF) is considered a promising approach for climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies, as highlighted in several European policy documents. This paper describes a prospective approach to introducing an incentive-based scheme to facilitate the implementation of CSF through a case study in Iceland. It is argued that the payments for ecosystem services (PES) scheme allows for effective CSF management and long-term sustainability if introduced in compliance with local, cultural, and social values. In a case study of an Icelandic afforestation programme, we conducted an institutional analysis of the PES scheme and assessed its effect on the sustainable provision of forest ecosystem services for the long term. We provide preliminary findings on the application of CSF in the 30-year-old Icelandic afforestation programme scheme. The perspectives of forest and policy experts, as well as local farmers participating in the scheme, were crucial for assessing the effectiveness of PES scheme performance in Iceland.
Highlights
Forest provides a range of ecosystem services on which the survival of humans depends (Spehn et al 2010), including wood used for human livelihoods, air to breathe, watershed protection, prevention of soil erosion, and climate change mitigation.Sustainable forest management (SFM) approaches have been guided by the goals of the UnitedNations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN 2015a) and Paris Agreement (UNb2015b), aimed at halting forest degradation and increasing carbon sinks in forests
We argue that payments for ecosystem services (PES) in combination with climate smart forestry (CSF) can be a vital
In the 1990s, Regional Afforestation Programmes (RAPs) subsequently identified the important goal of increasing carbon stocks
Summary
Forest provides a range of ecosystem services on which the survival of humans depends (Spehn et al 2010), including wood used for human livelihoods, air to breathe, watershed protection, prevention of soil erosion, and climate change mitigation.Sustainable forest management (SFM) approaches have been guided by the goals of the UnitedNations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN 2015a) and Paris Agreement (UNb2015b), aimed at halting forest degradation and increasing carbon sinks in forests. The new European Union (EU) forest strategy of the European Green Deal (EC 2019) embraces the implementation of SFM, which ensures a balance between the provision of multiple forest ecosystem services (FES) with growing demand for raw materials. Consistency is crucial between strategies and policies at multiple levels, as well as cross-sectoral cooperation on climate change in forestry, land-use, and other key sectors. The streamlining of national policies and implementation of incentives (Luckert and Williamson 2005; Williamson and Nelson 2017; Kauppi et al 2018) at local levels is essential in order to scale down global climate change objectives, to secure the efficiency of SFM, and to increase the provision of FES and the wellbeing of local people (DEFRA 2011; Härtl et al 2016).
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