Forest Management Problems Research Articles

Forest management with fire simulation

In this work, we address a forest management problem for timber production with fire concerns, employing a novel simulation-based optimization approach wherein forest management is iteratively guided by the feedback from fire spread simulations.The forest management problem involves selecting an alternative prescription for each stand, subject to various restrictions (e.g. bounds on ecosystems services), to maximize the net present value. For each stand, prescriptions involve projecting forest conditions and outcomes using species-specific growth and yield models, combined with different fuel treatment scenarios. In each iteration, the optimization problem is solved. Fire travel times between adjacent points in a grid representing the forest are calculated, based on fuel models associated with the selected prescriptions and other conditions as wind and slopes. Fire spread is simulated for all potential ignitions. Fire paths with a rate of spread greater than a given threshold are identified and constraints are added to the forestry problem to exclude their associated prescriptions to be jointly selected. This problem is re-optimized and the process is repeated until there are no such paths.We describe computational experiments in a Portuguese forest showing how trade-offs between the net present value and the maximum fire rate of spread can be obtained. When too restrictive conditions are imposed on fire, the approach suggests a set of stands to become fire breaks. We also conducted experiments to demonstrate how the impact of the forest surroundings, as well as bounds on ecosystem services, can be evaluated with respect to these trade-offs.

Legal regulation of the use of forest resources

The purpose of the study was to carry out a comprehensive analysis of the legislative framework in the field of forest resource management in Albania in the context of forest ecology, and species diversity, and to identify the main problems and prospects for sustainable development of the country’s forestry. The research methodology included the analysis of statistical data from the National Institute of Statistics of Albania on the structure of forest ecosystems and forms of their management. The results of studies conducted by international organizations such as the World Bank, Global Environment Facility, and Oikon d.o.o. were also used. The structure and composition of Albania’s forest resources, including those of natural and semi-natural origin, are analysed. The legal framework in the field of forest management in Albania is summarized. Different management structures for forestry land are characterized, with the identification of the specifics of use for different forms of ownership. The main problems of forest management are identified, including intensive exploitation of private forests, lack of subsidies and investments, as well as imperfect legislative regulation. Adaptation measures to increase the sustainability of Albania’s forests within the framework of the Albanian Forest Policy Document for the period 2019-2030 are substantiated. Strategic areas of development, such as the expansion of protected areas, the development of ecotourism and the attraction of green investments, are proposed. The study also emphasizes the importance of international cooperation for financial and technical support, which will facilitate the implementation of sustainable forest management practices and biodiversity conservation. The practical significance of the study is that these results can be used to develop strategic directions for the development of the forest sector in Albania, aimed at ensuring sustainable management and conservation of forest resources, which is a key factor for the country’s economic and environmental well-being

Regional forest management in the Volga Federal District: trends and prospects

In the 21st century, it is difficult to overestimate the importance of forest resources. Every year the role of forests as the ecosystem is growing due to the settlement of the technogenic impact of domestic industry on the environment. Today, in regions where the forest is the raw material base of the forestry complex, a place of employment of the local population and a source of replenishment of the budget at various levels, it is important to conduct a comprehensive analysis of forest management in Russia and develop a strategy for socio-economic development of the use of forest resource potential to improve the well-being of the local population and ensure the ecological and economic balance of the territory on this basis. The article reveals the trends of regional nature management on the example of the Volga Federal District. It is shown that especially negative trends are manifested in the fight against forest damage and fires, protection of forests from pests and diseases, preservation of forest biodiversity, their social and ecosystem functions. The issues of changing the structure of reforestation and the resulting problems of forest management are disclosed. Measures are proposed for the effective implementation of an intensive model of forestry management

Adjustment of Thinning Equations for Forest Management Area in the Western Amazon

Logging in the Amazon using reduced impact methods has high potential. However, one of the problems of forest management is an accurate estimation of the wood stock of a forest. Thinning equations allow for the analysis of the volume and fluctuations in diameter along the trunk of a tree, making it possible to estimate the volume, diameter, or height based on known dimensions of the trunk. Therefore, this study aimed to adjust and evaluate two thinning equations in a forest management area in the Western Amazon, in the municipality of Xapuri, state of Acre, Brazil, comparing them and selecting the one that presented the best performance for the study area. The study involved sampling in the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, utilizing 53 work units and employing the Kozak and linearized Demaerschalk models. These models were assessed based on their determination coefficient, standard error percentage, and graphical analysis of residues. The Demaerschalk model exhibited superior performance, with R² adj. of 92.88% for commercial height and 95.68% for total height. This research contributes to efficiently estimating tree dimensions, essential for sustainable forest management in the Western Amazon. The application of the Demaerschalk model provides precise measurements, enhancing the accuracy of volume calculations and facilitating effective forest management practices. Keywords: allometry, Amazon, Demaerschalk model, dendrometry, Kozak model

Features of natural renewal in pine-linden and larch-linden forest stands in Moscow

Problems of natural renewal of tree species (pine-linden and larch-linden stands) were studied in the territory of Forest experimental station, Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy. Natural regeneration of tree species is one of the most urgent problems of forestry and forest park management in urban areas. Reforestation refers to complex natural processes that affect all components of biogeocenoses. The purpose of the research was to study natural regeneration in mixed stands in Moscow. Methods and results of field surveys of forest stands in permanent trial plots were described. The forest stands of permanent trial plots are mature and overmature, therefore at present there is a loss of large-sized pine and larch trees. Due to greater durability, larch falls off more slowly compared to pine. Further growth of pine-linden and larch-linden plantations depends on quantity and quality of undergrowth, its viability and growing conditions. In Forest experimental station, natural renewal prevails, represented mainly by the following species: maple and linden. Saplings of pine, larch, oak, and birch appear on some permanent test plots, but soon die due to unfavorable conditions. Oak undergrowth is also unreliable due to powdery mildew infection. The greatest loss of growth occurs in unfavorable growing conditions due to increased recreational loads.

A General Rule-Based Framework for Generating Alternatives for Forest Ecosystem Management Decision Support Systems

Linear programming formulations of forest ecosystem management (FEM) problems proposed in the 1960s have been adapted and improved upon over the years. Generating management alternatives for forest planning is a key step in building these models. Global forests are diverse, and a variety of models have been developed to simulate management alternatives. This paper describes iGen, a forest prescription generator that employs a rule-based system (AI-RBS), an AI technique that is often used for expert systems. iGen was designed with the goal of being able to generate management alternatives for virtually any FEM problem. The prescription generator is not designed for, adapted to, focused on—and ideally not limited to—any specific region, landscape, forest condition, projection method, or yield function. Instead, it aims to maximize generality, enabling it to address a broad range of FEM problems. The goal is that practitioners and researchers who do not have and do not want to develop their own alternative generator can use iGen as a prescription generator for their problem instances. For those who choose to develop their own alternative generators, we hope that the concepts and algorithms we propose in this paper will be useful in designing their own systems. iGen’s flexibility can be attributed to three key features. First, users can define the state variable vector for management units according to the available data, models (production functions), and objectives of their problem instance. Second, users also define the types of interventions that can be applied to each type of management unit and create a rule base describing the conditions under which each intervention can be applied. Finally, users specify the equations of motion that determine how the state vector for each management unit will be updated over time, depending on which, if any, interventions are applied. Other than this basic structure, virtually everything in an iGen problem instance is user-defined. iGen uses these key elements to simulate all possible management prescriptions for each management unit and stores the resulting information in a database that is structured to efficiently store the output data from these simulations and to facilitate the generation of optimization models for ultimately determining the Pareto frontier for a given FEM problem. This article introduces iGen, illustrating its concepts, structure, and algorithms through two FEM example problems with contrasting forest management practices: natural regeneration with shelterwood harvests and plantation/coppice. For data and iGen source programs, visit github.com/SilvanaNobre/iGenPaper.

Silviculture in the function of sustainable development

Silviculture in the function of sustainable development

Study on Forest Planning Decision Based on Carbon Sequestration Model

To mitigate the effects of climate change, this paper need to take effective action to reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. From a global perspective, moderate harvesting is beneficial for carbon sequestration, but it is important for forest managers to consider the value of harvested forest products and the value of forest growth for carbon sequestration, and to consider other factors. A model for calculating forest carbon sinks was developed, setting carbon sinks of plants, soils, forest products, and the water environment as primary indicators, and dividing six secondary indicators downward. By quantifying the secondary indicators, the total amount of carbon sequestration is obtained. Second, a complete forest management plan is developed, taking into account other values of the forest. The forest management problem is transformed into a planning problem, and then a particle swarm algorithm is used to solve the forest management planning problem. Trees are not harvested when there are significant differences in biomass at different growth levels and when the value of the forest products exceeds the value of the sustained carbon sink of the trees. The value of forest products is weighed against the value of sustained forest growth to find the transition point, and specific forests and their location characteristics are used to determine the transition point.

A Modified Hooke–Jeeves Algorithm in Two-Player Nonlinear Static Game: With an Application in Forest Management

Strategy considerations for optimal outcomes play the key roles in every decision-making problems. Game theory in itself preserves the sustainability to draw some decision-making conclusions. Different forms of game exist in literature. This article is concerned with two-player nonlinear static game. We consider here the solution of the game problems through the algorithmic structures, with some modification, of Hooke–Jeeves (HJ) algorithm which is a tool to encounter unconstrained optimization. Basically, we lay emphasis on the modification of the considered function which is to be optimized. Hence, the name of the proposed algorithm is modified HJ algorithm. Numerous articles present different solutions of various real-life problems using HJ algorithm. Forest management problem is considered here under modified HJ algorithm to get solution. This article concludes with some comparative analysis with respect to some different methods, for example, analytical method and graphical method. Our proposed methodology gives better results than the results obtained in analytical method and graphical method with respect to optimal strategy sets and optimal payoff values.

Стратегия развития лесного сектора экономики России: ключевые положения и концептуальная основа

The subject of the study is a strategic course for forest policy, designed to bring the Russian forest sector of the economy out of crisis. The purpose of the work is to determine the vector of improvement of strategic installations of the forest complex. For this purpose, the integrity of the relationship between the existing key provisions of the regulations governing the functioning of the forest complex was assessed, and the concept of the long-term plans being developed was determined. The relevance of the work is due to the need to develop approaches to creating an adequate conceptual framework for forest policy against the background of the aggravated problems of rational forest management in real economic activity as a basis for further adjustments in the work on the periodic change of the strategic course aimed at overcoming the crisis state of the Russian forest sector of the economy. The conducted research made it possible to substantiate the expediency of developing a conceptual framework for streamlining goal-setting to solve existing problems, since it is impossible to achieve established strategic goals without fundamentally stated priorities. It is concluded that in order to increase the efficiency of forest management and ensure the rationality of forest management, it is necessary to build the actions of the state, business and society in a reasonable compromise of the actors.

СОДЕРЖАНИЕ УГЛЕРОДА В ПОЧВАХ И ЛЕСНОЙ ПОДСТИЛКЕ НАСАЖДЕНИЙ УФИМСКОГО ЛЕСНИЧЕСТВА

One of the important forest-climatic research areas is the study of soil carbon level in different types of forest soils with the prospect of developing effective measures to solve the problem of forest management in terms of reducing the effects of climate change. In this regard, monitoring of forest ecosystems for absorption of greenhouse gases and justification of measures to increase this capacity is relevant in carbon polygons and in the establishment of carbon farms. The assessment of carbon stock in the topsoil and structural-aggregate composition was carried out on the basis of field and laboratory studies at the site of carbon polygon No. 4 Forest (19, 20 quarters). In the course of research, the highest carbon content in the upper soil layer 0–20 cm of the studied soils in the profile of chernozem podzolized – 11.31 kg C/m2 , lower content of organic carbon in light gray forest soils – 5.26 kg C/m2 . It was revealed that the total stock of organic carbon in the upper soil layers of the carbon polygon on the territory of Dmitrievskoye forest lot is 8134.19 tons (813.42 kg C/m2 ), the greatest contribution is made by chernozem podzolnyi and dark gray forest soils. As a result of studies on the presence of nitrogen in the forest area fall, it was revealed that the linden stand contains 2.04, and birch stand – 1.43 % per 100 g of dry matter.

Perceived climate change risks among other risks affecting private forest owners in a top-down decision-making process

Abstract Forest management adaptation to climate change is a matter of forest type, disturbances regime, and forest owners’ behavior face the climate change issue. Knowing factors that determine people respond to climate change challenges is essential to explaining their perceptions of climate change adaptation. We have conducted astudy in North-Eastern Romania applying the Model of Private Proactive Adaptation to Climate Change. The aim was to identify private forest owners’ perceptions about climate change and forest management threats and constraints and to analyse what variables differentiate private forest owners’ adaptation behavior. The PFOs with higher education were aware of the forest regime regarding private management. They knew how to assess climate change risk, while those with secondary education were the only interest was obtaining wood. The PFOs’ risk experience played an important role in adaptation. The perceptions and beliefs of PFOs were strongly influenced by socio-economic status, and they believe in climate change effects on forests but not on theirs. Adaption has become less urgent because forest management problems blur climate change beliefs. Assuming that the Romanian PFOs’ perceptions and beliefs about climate change will follow the European trend, they will want to improve their knowledge about climate change impacts and adaptive measures. Therefore, aggregating the interested PFOs, creating suitable communication channels, and organizing trainings on forest management adaptation to climate change will be needed to prevent this need.

Deforestation as a Cause of Increased Surface Runoff in the Catchment: Remote Sensing and SWAT Approach—A Case Study of Southern Serbia

In the past two decades, the South part of Serbia has been affected by exploitive and illegal logging. As this trend is not decreasing to this day, there is a need to determine the area where this logging occurred precisely. The consequences of these actions are tremendous, causing the forest owners’ financial loss (regardless of whether it is private or state property) and a negative impact on the environment. Significant environmental and forest management problems deriving from these actions are erosion increase and more frequent torrential floods occurrence in the catchment. Since it is difficult to update the national forest inventories in remote areas, remote sensing techniques using different satellite imagery types can provide up-to-date data. The initial analysis that employed Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (created using Landsat 7 and Landsat 8 imagery) indicates massive deforestation in the research area between 1999 and 2021. Headwaters of the Štavska river catchment is selected as the research area to determine the amount of erosion in two periods—before and after deforestation occurred. Change in land cover (LC) is presented with two LC maps created applying supervised classification to Landsat 7 imagery from 1999 as a pre-deforestation LC state and Landsat 8 imagery acquired in 2021 as the current LC state. The erosion in the catchment for both periods is determined using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). The analysis results show the erosion change incurred as a deforestation effect in the river catchment. With the data obtained by remote sensing and SWAT analysis, it is possible to track changes in the area and acquire essential data, making the right and fast decisions to protect the natural resources economy and make sustainable development possible in this impoverished region.

Stand Volume Equation for Pinus Brutia Ten. Natural Growing in Zawita Area, Kurdistan Region of Iraq

Calabrian pine (Pinus brutia Ten.) is grown naturally in Zawita area, Kurdistan Region of Iraq.  It is preferable to have stand volume equation specifically for natural stand of this species due to its importance in decision making regarding many forest management problems. In this work, a reliable stand volume equation was developed for this species to fill this gap. The developed equation was found to be in accord with the least square assumptions. As was the case with many stand volume models that have been developed for different species, stand basal area and stand height were the best in explaining the variation in stand volume. A stand volume table was presented to instantly estimate stand volume from combinations of stand basal area and stand height

Problems of the Russian forest industry management and innovative development

The role in the economy and the structure of the forest industry are presented. The key problems of forest management and innovative development of the forest industry in Russia are highlighted. Namely, these are the following: 1) production and technological; 2) natural and ecological; 3) institutional and organizational; 4) problems of forest protection and reforestation. The ways of their solution are proposed for the forest industry of Russia. The innovative development of the forest industry of Russia is discussed. The implementation of the Forest innovation system is suggested for the sustainable forest industry management and based on the feedback of the experts in the forest industry.

Response of specialist and generalist predators to nonprogressive annual fluctuations in herbivorous insect populations

To control sawfly populations that cause a forest management problem due to feeding damage, it is necessary to understand the mechanism of eruptive outbreak in erratic intervals by clarifying the responses of natural enemies to the host population fluctuations. In this study, we investigated annual beech sawfly population fluctuations and its predator, ichneumonid parasitoid wasps (as specialists) and predatory soldier beetles (as generalists). In addition, yearly responses of predators to the host emerging patterns were examined using structural equation modeling. The results revealed that ichneumonid wasps showed a non-delayed synchronous response to erratic fluctuation of the host population, resulting in the maintenance of a constant parasitism ratio. In contrast, soldier beetle population, which tends to moderately fluctuate while maintaining a specific density, showed a low-intensity delayed response without significance in the model. These predator populations without strong delayed density-dependent response are quite unlikely to highly densify causing mass mortality to the host population in the both the current and following years of outbreak. In places where eruptive outbreaks of sawfly species repeatedly occur in erratic intervals, sawfly populations are possibly maintained in high density due to the low mortality ratio caused by predators.

Problems in the timely improvement of sanitary state of the forests affected by the Siberian silk moth outbreaks

The article discusses topical problems of modern forest management regarding the procedure necessary to prescribe sanitation cuttings in dark coniferous stands damaged by the Siberian silk moth. Nowadays, the inability to timely cut down the defoliated, mature and overmature commercial dark coniferous timber leads to the formation of large areas of damaged stands that will hardly ever recover. There are no subsidies stimulating forest users to cut down forests damaged by the Siberian silk moth and conduct artificial reforestation. The present study suggests steps for adjusting the current legislation in pests control measures prescription in emergencies in forest land leased.

Forest management for optimizing soil protection: a landscape-level approach

BackgroundSoil erosion is still identified as the main cause of land degradation worldwide, threatening soil functions and driving several research and policy efforts to reverse it. Trees are commonly associated to some of the most successful land-use systems to achieve soil protection goals, but the extent to which forest ecosystems reduce erosion risks can largely depend on management decisions and associated silvicultural practices. Optimization tools can assist foresters in solving the complex planning problem they face, concerning the demand for different, and often conflicting, ecosystem services. A resource capability model (RCM), based on a linear programming approach, was built and solved for a forest landscape management problem in Northwest Portugal, over a 90-years planning horizon, divided in 10-years periods.ResultsTimber provision and soil erosion were found to be in trade-off. The management alternatives included in the model were proven to be sufficiently flexible to obtain the desired level of timber yield, both in volume and even distribution along the planning horizon, while ensuring lower levels of soil loss estimates (below 35 Mg∙ha− 1∙year− 1). However, under climate change conditions, compatible with an increasing greenhouse gases emission scenario, potential landscape soil erosion may be enhanced up to 46 Mg∙ha− 1∙year− 1 in critical periods.ConclusionsSoil conservation concerns in landscape-level forest management planning can be addressed by LP-based optimization methods. Besides providing an optimal management solution at landscape level, this approach enables a comprehensive analysis of the RCM, possible trade-offs and potential changes towards uncertainties.

ПРОБЛЕМЫ ПРАВОВОГО РЕГУЛИРОВАНИЯ МЕР ПО ИСПОЛЬЗОВАНИЮ И ОХРАНЕ ЛЕСОВ

In this article, the authors investigate the problems of legal regulation of forest management and forest protection. According to the authors, the nature of forest management problems and the prevalence, type and severity of committed forest violations depend on the per capita forest distribution in Russia. The actual problem of the use and protection of forests in Russia today is the depleting nature of forest use in the regions of Russia provided with forests. The authors also refer to the problems of forest use as violations of the rights of citizens to stay in forests, to pick mushrooms, berries, nuts and other forest food resources. The authors propose to pay special attention to the prevention of risks of causing economic damage to citizens and organizations when applying measures to protect forests.

An optimization approach to design forest road networks and plan timber transportation

The provision of ecosystem services depends on the landscape-level distribution of forest management options over extended planning horizons. Nevertheless, transportation costs are an important fraction of total procurement costs. Therefore, forest managers are challenged by the need to make decisions regarding the design of the road network needed to have access to forest management units (e.g., stands) as well as the transportation of forest products over this network. The objective of this research is to develop an approach to integrate the design and maintenance of a forest roads’ network and to provide solutions to the timber loading location site and the timber transportation problems. The emphasis is on the combination of mathematical programming formulations and heuristic solution techniques to minimize the sum of road building, road maintenance, timber loading and transportation costs. Specifically, a mixed integer programming model is built to represent the problem while a heuristic algorithm, based on a Graph Simplification procedure and a big-M Estimation procedure, is proposed to solve the underlying optimization problem. Results from an application to a large-scale forest management problem in Northwest Portugal involving 1137 management units are discussed. Results suggest that this approach may help address efficiently the need by forest managers to integrate road design, road maintenance, timber loading location and transportation concerns.