High Conservation Value Forests Research Articles

Habitat associations of Agathidium pulchellum, an endangered old-growth forest beetle species living on slime moulds

The beetle genus Agathidium is the largest insect group documented that principally feeds on slime moulds. Agathidium pulchellum, one of the rarest Agathidium species in Europe, is listed in the EU’s Habitats Directive. We studied the habitat associations of A. pulchellum in 44 sites located in old-growth and managed forests in eastern Finland. Agathidium pulchellum occurred exclusively on the slime-mould species Trichia decipiens. The host was associated with mid-decayed aspen, spruce and birch logs, and its incidence grew with both increasing log diameter and stand-level log density of spruce and aspen. We also observed that even if its host was present, the beetle was absent from sites with less than 80 aspen and spruce logs per hectare. All sites with A. pulchellum were natural forests of high conservation value. Our results show that it is possible to systematically survey the occurrence of A. pulchellum.

Integrating Protected Areas, Plantations, and Certification

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has conducted significant work in the areas of forest conservation and sustainable management. The main findings of WWF's Howard and Stead (2001), as outlined in The Forest Industry in the 21st Century report, make the case for meeting the world's forest products needs from one-fifth of the world's forest estate. In addition, WWF's experience in the realm of forest management certification sheds light on certification's potential to ensure conservation benefits from plantations and help overcome some of the present challenges faced by plantation forestry. Recognizing protected area needs (particularly in the US and Canada) on an ecoregional level and helping to define and identify High Conservation Value Forests (HCVFs) are also important components of WWF' s work in forest conservation. Within the context of the plantations and protected areas debate, some of WWF' s research and analysis suggests that the pace and scope in which the projected expansion of fast-growing tree-plantations can be developed within the court of public opinion will be determined largely by commensurate efforts to secure adequate protected areas and the safeguarding of forest found to be of high conservation value.

Does forest certification matter? An analysis of operation-level changes required during the SmartWood certification process in the United States

One controversial and contested issue concerning forest certification is whether this market-based instrument actually requires participating forestry operations to follow more sustainable practices. While previous studies have explored and compared the standards used by different certification systems, our research sheds additional light on this question by systematically assessing documented conditions and pre-conditions that forest companies seeking FSC certification in the United States were required to address in order to obtain, or maintain, their certificates. We examined the changes that 80 SmartWood-certified forestry operations were required to make to forest management, ecological, social, and procedural elements of their forestry practices as a requirement of the certification process. We found that systems elements such as Management Plans, Monitoring and Inventory most frequently required change (by 94%, 79% and 71% of certified operations, respectively), followed by ecological elements such as High Conservation Value Forests and Woody Debris, Snags and Legacy Trees (by 71% and 63% of operations, respectively). We also found regional differences in the number of changes operations are required to make during certification, and found that operations located in states with mandatory Best Management Practices (BMPs) are required to make fewer changes during the certification process than those in states where BMPs are voluntary. We found that small and large operations were given roughly the same number and type of conditions and preconditions. Overall the results show that even the early adopters of certification were required to make important changes as a result of the certification process.

Polypores and associated beetles of the North Karelian Biosphere Reserve, eastern Finland

Polypores (poroid Basidiomycota) and associated beetles were inventoried in the Koitajoki Natura 2000 area (Ilomantsi municipality) and the Kitsi forest fire area (Lieksa), both belonging to the North Karelian Biosphere Reserve of the EU. As a result 105 polypore species were collected; together with earlier reports by other authors, the amount of species totals 121. This is a high number, surpassed in Finland by a few first-rank nature reserves only. Of the species found, 29 are red listed: 2 endangered (EN: Antrodia crassa (P. Karst.) Ryvarden, Piloporia sajanensis (Parmasto) Niemela), 11 vulnerable (VU), and 16 near-threatened (NT). Hyphodontia latitans (Bourd. & Galz.) E. Langer has been found in Finland only once from the same area; now it was recollected. The research area is in a way a meeting-point of some northerly species (e.g. Daedaleopsis septentrionalis (P. Karst.) Niemela, Trichaptum laricinum (P. Karst.) Ryvarden), those with an eastern distribution in Fennoscandia (e.g. Trichaptum pargamenum (Fr.) G. Cunn.), and some southern ones (e.g. Pycnoporellus fulgens (Fr.) Donk). Remarkably numerous were some species which indicate old growth forests of high conservation value (e.g. Amylocystis lapponica (Romell) Singer, Antrodia albobrunnea (Romell) Ryvarden, A. crassa, Fomitopsis rosea (Alb. & Schwein. : Fr.) P. Karst., Phellinus nigrolimitatus (Romell) Bourd. & Galz., Skeletocutis stellae (Pilat) Jean Keller). Beetle imagines were collected from polypore basidiocarps, and their larvae from basidiocarps and underlying decay, and then reared into adults. Special attention was paid to beetles living on rare polypore species. The polypore-associated beetle fauna totals 115 species, including 24 previously unrecorded from the Reserve. Our paper includes beetle records from ca. 30 such polypore species of which no previous beetle finds have been reported in the literature. The ecology of beetles living on fungal basidiocarps is discussed. Polypores can be divided into different ecological groups according to which beetles they attract; a division into basidiocarp consistency classes is proposed to describe such groups. Furthermore, the freshness or decomposition of a basidiocarp determines the amounts of beetles and their larvae, and their species composition.

Does forest certification conserve biodiversity?

Forest certification provides a means by which producers who meet stringent sustainable forestry standards can identify their products in the marketplace, allowing them to potentially receive greater market access and higher prices for their products. An examination of the ways in which certification may contribute to biodiversity conservation leads to the following conclusions: 1) the process of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certification generates improvements to management with respect to the value of managed forests for biodiversity. 2) Current incentives are not sufficient to attract the majority of producers to seek certification, particularly in tropical countries where the costs of improving management to meet FSC guidelines are significantly greater than any market benefits they may receive; available incentives are even less capable of convincing forest owners to retain forest cover and produce certified timber on a sustainable basis, rather than deforesting their lands for timber and agriculture. 3) At present, current volumes of certified forest products are insufficient to reduce demand to log high conservation value forests. If FSC certification is to make greater inroads, particularly in tropical countries, significant investments will be needed both to increase the benefits and reduce the costs of certification. Conservation investors will need to carefully consider the biodiversity benefits that will be generated from such investments, versus the benefits generated from investing in more traditional approaches to biodiversity conservation.

The presence of old-growth characteristics as a criterion for identifying temperate forests of high conservation value

The presence of old-growth characteristics as a criterion for identifying temperate forests of high conservation value