Large Forest Landscape Research Articles

Regional sets of diverse, specialized ground beetle and plant assemblages recolonise China’s restored temperate forest landscapes

Following the historic destruction of China’s forests, large protected forest landscapes have been reestablishment across the country in recent decades. Currently, the species assemblages inhabiting these landscapes remain widely unknown. Here, we aim to establish whether the new temperate forest landscapes in Eastern China, composed of plantation, secondary and remnant mature forest patches, are dominated by widely distributed habitat generalists, widely distributed habitat specialists, or by sets of highly localized forest habitat specialist species, using vascular plants and ground beetles as case studies. We sampled plants and ground beetles on 159 plots representing different forest types distributed across ten study regions. The Chord-normalized expected species shared (CNESS) dissimilarity for beetles and Jaccard dissimilarity for plants were calculated to establish species’ turnover patterns, while we used structural equation and multiple regression models for dissimilarity matrices to establish the relative importance of location, elevation and biotic interactions in explaining large-scale distribution patterns of species assemblages. Both taxa showed highly regionalized recruitment, with plant communities responding strongly to latitude, and to geographic location in general, while the composition of ground beetle communities appeared strongly governed by both the composition of the vegetation and study plot location. Both assemblages showed a distinct lack of widespread habitat generalists. Our results demonstrate for the first time that local assemblages of forest specialist species appear to have survived last century’s deforestation in unknown refugia before successfully re-colonizing China’s restored forest ecosystems. We argue that restored forest landscapes can play a significant role in the conservation of temperate China’s biodiversity at both local and regional scales.

Planning for megafauna recovery in the tropical rainforests of Sumatra

Human-induced forest loss has had devastating impacts on biodiversity. Mammal populations in the tropics have been hit particularly hard by the resulting habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation, as well as by overhunting which often goes hand-in-hand. While declines in these populations are generally well documented, few studies offer a pathway for their recovery. Here, we test the association between changes in forest habitat and occupancy trends of Sumatran megafauna (elephant and tiger) and key tiger prey species (wild boar and sambar) in the Leuser Ecosystem: a large forest landscape on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. For elephant and tiger, we develop additional occupancy models to predict their respective spatial distribution under different scenarios of forest loss and gain (through restoration and increased connectivity) to provide a blueprint for avoiding future species loss and assisting with their population recovery. From 2000 to 2019, 254,722 ha (6.7%) of natural forest was converted, primarily to plantations and shrubs. The species-specific responses over the study period revealed that the occurrence of elephant declined along the west, with a range shift to the northeast of Leuser, whereas wild boar underwent a dramatic widespread decline and although sambar experienced losses around the forest edge, it remained widespread in the interior forest, while tiger occupancy remained stable. Modelling habitat loss and fragmentation led to an unsurprising demise of Sumatran megafauna, whereas strategic investments that reconnected several forest patches provided disproportionately large benefits for their recovery through the recolonization of former parts of their range. Indonesia has achieved six consecutive years of declining forest loss rates, and our study’s findings can build off this conservation success by supporting improved provincial spatial planning and field-based restoration efforts that avoid declines of threatened megafauna species and act as a catalyst for rewilding a landscape of global importance.

Spatially explicit modeling of disease surveillance in mixed oak-hardwood forests based on machine-learning algorithms

Incidences of disease, dieback, decline or mortality, some of which induced or enhanced by climate change, threaten the sustainability of forest stands in many ecosystems. Spatially explicit prediction of disease onset remains challenging, however, due to the involvement of several causative agents. In this paper, we developed a generic framework based on machine-learning algorithms and spatial analyses for landscape-level prediction of oak disease outbreaks caused by the charcoal fungus Biscogniauxia mediterranea in a mixed-oak forest of Mediterranean climate. For prediction, we used a set of fifteen causative factors as a cross-function of soil, site and stand-related predictors. A total of 80 sample plots, including 1134 affected trees, were surveyed and used for the modeling process at the 5600-ha landscape level of the southern Zagros, Iran, where the disease occurs in roughly 25% of forest lands. Ten machine learning algorithms were explored and the performance of each algorithm to predict oak disease outbreak was evaluated. The modeling framework used maximum entropy to remove the least influential variables and build the status-quo management scenario to which the results of the prediction models were compared. Results showed that the random forests algorithm (AUC = 0.96: Precision = 0.71: Accuracy = 0.90: F-Measure = 0.70) achieved significantly better results than the status-quo management (Precision = 0.13: Accuracy = 0.67: F-Measure = 0.12) and any other algorithm. Soil chemical properties (NPK, organic carbon and EC) and landform predictors (slope, distance to roads, and TWI) were major forecasters of oak disease outbreak identified by the random forest algorithm. Geostatistical analysis enabled the creation of a map that identified sites at higher risk of infestation, allowing epidemiologists and forest managers to find sites likely to be infested. Consequently, financial resources can be allocated and management practices such as sanitation felling treatments applied across large forest landscapes to minimize the risk of spread and severity to uninfested high-value trees on nearby or adjacent land zones that are in the early stage of epidemics.

Оценка природоохранного значения особо охраняемых природных территорий (на примере заповедника «Вишерский»)

There are many ways to assess the impact of protected area (PA) in the conservation of the natural environ-ment. Some of them are based on information about the flora and fauna, soils, water bodies, climatic processes and phe-nomena; others – on landscape, spatial, ecosystem data. The generalization of the existing approaches into a single scheme for assessing the environmental significance of protected areas is considered as an urgent task, both from a theoretical and practical point of view. The proposed methodology is based on a set of typical open data sources, including both research by inside and outside scientific teams, and stock, statistical information published by government authorities. It allows to apply the methodolody to any protected area with an average and high degree of knowledge’s state. The im-portance of each protected area is proposed to be considered at least at 3 levels: regional, national and global. The pro-posed methodology includes the identification of the value of protected areas in terms of conservation of biota, abiotic components, natural complexes, maintaining ecological balance. In the second part of the article, the approach is applied on the example of the «Visherskiy State Nature Reserve». At the regional level, the «Visherskiy State Nature Reserve» is the most valuable protected area in the Perm region. For example, more than 30% of all species of fungi, vascular plants, fish and more than 50-60% of lichens, bryophytes and mammals found in the Kama region, live in the «Visherskiy» State Nature Reserve. In Russia and Europe, the role of Visherskiy Reserve can be characterized as significant, and in certain parameters (for example, as a site for the conservation of the largest group of Thymallus thymallus), as crucial. At the world level, the «Visherskiy State Nature Reserve» is distinguished by the preservation of the natural environment of the Urals montane tundra and taiga of the Global200 ecoregion, the southern part of a large intact forest landscape and the presence of three globally rare species (Hucho taimen, Emberiza rustica, Rangifer tarandus). There are few promising directions for the development of the methodology: improvement of approaches to the assessment of natural complexes in climate formation, the identification of valuable hydrological (surface and underground) objects. It is also interesting to carry out assessments of other reserves, national parks, and other large protected areas, which will make it possible to compare them in detail with each other. Inflow by some new information (the distribution of rare ecosystems, numerical data on the intensity of material circulation, some poorly studied groups of biota) in the future will provide an opportunity for a more complete assessment of the conservation significance of the «Visherskiy» State Nature Reserve.

Size requirements of intact forest landscapes for effective biodiversity conservation under regional fire regimes and climate change

Conserving large intact forest landscapes (IFLs) is one forest management strategy to mitigate industrial impacts on the environment. Measuring the IFL inventory at national scales has also been proposed as a means of assessing the conservation status at global scales. This paper explores the relationship between fire regimes and the size of intact forest landscapes required to meet specific conservation targets. In this paper, we demonstrate that variation in fire regimes results in changes in the minimum size of IFL required to meet habitat targets. In addition, minimum IFL size is also dependent on the nature of the habitat targets. Larger IFLs are required to improve likelihood of providing sufficient older habitat. There is significant risk of not meeting older forest age-class targets at higher annual area burned (AAB) rates, especially under climate change. In general, there is more risk of not meeting habitat targets associated with smaller IFLs, higher annual area burned (both due to spatial differences and between historical and projected burn rates under climate change), and for provision of older forests. We used habitat age-related targets as outlined in the recovery strategy for woodland caribou as an example to demonstrate the usefulness of this type of simulation experiment and risk curves to identify appropriate IFL size along a gradient of natural disturbance intensity.

Can multifunctional forest landscapes sustain a high diversity of saproxylic beetles?

Intensive forestry practices have led to fragmentation of habitats that have high conservation value and has reduced the availability of deadwood in forests. This has in turn, led to a decline in species associated with deadwood (e.g. saproxylic beetles). Conservation measures have been developed in order to halt the negative trend in forest biodiversity, both at local and landscape scales. Ecoparks are large forest landscapes, with at least 50% of the forestland being managed with enhanced conservation concern including legal and voluntary protection or restoration of forests. Ecoparks aim to combine production, nature conservation and recreation (e.g. berry picking, hiking, hunting, fishing) and thereby represent multifunctional forest landscapes. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether ecoparks can sustain greater diversity of saproxylic beetles than conventionally managed production landscapes, and whether the local habitat amount and diversity can have an additional effect on species assemblages. Two ecoparks and two representative conventional production landscapes, which implement a rotation forestry with general nature consideration, were selected for the study. Beetles were collected during three years in sun-exposed plots, where local (20 m radius) forest structures were measured. We found that both ecoparks sustained greater abundance and richness of nationally red-listed beetles (IUCN classes NT, VU, EN) and contained different beetle assemblages in comparison with conventional landscapes. Local deadwood volume had a positive relationship with the richness and abundance of saproxylic and red-listed beetles in the southern study area (long history of land-use), but not in the north (short history of land-use), partially supporting habitat amount hypothesis (HAH) at the local scale. Instead, the responses of beetles to deadwood diversity showed inconclusive results, varying between years and study areas. Our results highlight the potential of multifunctional forests in conserving biodiversity of saproxylic beetle species, especially red-listed species, as well as the importance of local deadwood availability.

Multi-scale mammal responses to agroforestry landscapes in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest: the conservation value of forest and traditional shade plantations

The future of tropical forest biodiversity will largely depend on human-modified landscapes. We investigated how medium- to large-bodied mammals respond to factors at local (habitat type), intermediate (land use heterogeneity, forest cover and human population density) and large spatial scales (overall forest cover) in agroforestry landscapes. We surveyed mammals using camera traps in traditional cacao agroforests (cabrucas), intensified cacao agroforests, and forest remnants within two large Atlantic Forest landscapes of southern Bahia, Brazil, representing both high and low forest cover. At the local scale, habitat types differed in their potential to harbour mammal species, with forest remnants and cabrucas showing high conservation value, mainly under contexts of high forest cover, whereas intensified cacao agroforests contained less diversified species assemblages in both landscapes. At intermediate scales, species richness increased with increasing forest cover around forest remnants and intensified cacao agroforests, but the opposite was observed in cabrucas. The effects of human population density were ubiquitous but species-dependent. At the largest scale, species richness was higher in the most forested landscape, highlighting the imperative of maintaining forest remnants to retain forest-dwelling mammals in human-dominated landscapes. We claim that mammal conservation strategies require a multi-scale approach and that no single strategy is likely to maximize persistence of all species. Some species can routinely use traditional agroforests, and a large fraction of mammal diversity can be maintained even if high canopy-cover agroforestry dominates the landscape. Nevertheless, forest patches and highly forested landscapes are essential to ensure the persistence of forest-dwelling and game species.

Large intact forest landscapes and inclusive conservation: a political ecological perspective

Intact Forest Landscapes (IFLs) are global conservation units that aim to combat fragmentation, alteration, degradation, and loss of global forests. ILFs are typically recognized for their biodiversity, carbon storage, protection of hydroecological systems and other ecosystem services. However, IFLs are distinctive among other conservation efforts because they do not immediately prioritize conservation approaches that have goals of alleviating human poverty or improving well-being. The prevailing view is that IFL conservation should engage with ecocentric models of conservation. In this article, we leverage political ecology's analytical attention to power, institutions, identities, and scales to make suggestions on ways in which to integrate biocentric conservation considerations into IFL practices. From a scoping literature review, we found the following areas are especially critical for the future of IFL conservation: (1) prioritizing Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLC) as actors and beneficiaries of conservation; (2) identifying the value of knowledge integration and co-production for conservation; (3) addressing heterogenous communities and equity impacts, and (4) the need for procedural mechanisms in conservation initiatives that support nesting Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities management and governance in polycentric systems. Furthermore, the development of diagnostic questions of scaling community-based conservation and adaptive strategies beyond their original scope in terms of community definitions, landscape and political context may be beneficial for addressing multi-stakeholder needs, identifying more equitable approaches, sharing strategies and obtaining successful outcomes in IFL conservation.Keywords: Indigenous peoples and local communities, large intact landscapes, forests, conservation

How Well Do Stakeholder-Defined Forest Management Scenarios Balance Economic and Ecological Forest Values?

Research Highlights: We show the difference in the long-term effects on economic and ecological forest values between four forest management scenarios of a large representative forest landscape. The scenarios were largely formulated by stakeholders representing the main views on how to manage north-European forests. Background and Objectives: Views on how to balance forest management between wood production and biodiversity differ widely between different stakeholder groups. We aim to show the long-term consequences of stakeholder-defined management scenarios, in terms of ecological and economic forest values. Materials and Methods: We simulated management scenarios for a forest landscape in Sweden, based on the management objectives and strategies of key stakeholders. We specifically investigated the difference in economic forest values coupled to wood supply and ecological indicators coupled to structural biodiversity between the scenarios over a 100-year period. The indicators were net present value, harvest, growing stock and increment, along with deadwood volume, the density of large trees, area of old forests and mature broadleaf-rich forests. Results: We show that the scenarios have widely different outcomes in terms of the studied indicators, and that differences in indicator outcome were largely due to different distributions in management regimes, i.e., the proportion of forest left unmanaged or under even-aged management or continuous cover forest, as well as specific retention practices. Retention and continuous cover forestry mitigate the negative effects that clear-cut forestry has upon biodiversity. Conclusions: We found that an increase in the forest area under the continuous cover forestry regime could be a cost-efficient way to increase structural diversity in managed boreal forests. On the other hand, no single management regime performed best with respect to all indicators, which means that a mixture of several management regimes is needed to balance conflicting objectives. We also show that the trade-off between economic and ecological indicators was not directly proportional, meaning that an increase in structural biodiversity may be obtained at a proportionally low cost with appropriate management planning.

European Union’s Last Intact Forest Landscapes are at A Value Chain Crossroad between Multiple Use and Intensified Wood Production

Research Highlights: The European Union’s last large intact forest landscapes along the Scandinavian Mountain range in Sweden offer unique opportunities for conservation of biodiversity, ecological integrity and resilience. However, these forests are at a crossroad between intensified wood production aimed at bio-economy, and rural development based on multi-functional forest landscapes for future-oriented forest value chains. Background and Objectives: We (1) estimate the area of near-natural forests potentially remaining for forest harvesting and wood production, or as green infrastructure for biodiversity conservation and human well-being in rural areas, (2) review how forest and conservation policies have so far succeeded to reduce the loss of mountain forests, and (3) discuss what economic, socio-cultural and ecological values that are at stake, as well as different governance and management solutions. Materials and Methods: First, we estimated the remaining amount of intact mountain forests using (1) the Swedish National Forest Inventory, (2) protected area statistics, (3) forest harvest permit applications and actually harvested forests, (4) remote sensing wall-to-wall data on forests not subject to clear-felling since the mid-1950s, (5) mapping of productive and non-productive forestland, and (6) estimates of mean annual final felling rate. Second, we review policy documents related to the emergence of land use regulation in north Sweden, including the mountain forest border, and illustrate this with an actual case that has had significant policy implementation importance. Results: There is a clear difference between the proportions of formally protected productive forestland above the mountain forest border (52.5%) and north Sweden in general (6.3%). A total of 300,000 ha of previously not clear-felled mountain forest outside protected areas remain, which can support novel value chains that are not achievable elsewhere. Conclusions: The mountain forests in Sweden provide unique conservation values in the European Union. Since the beginning of the 1990s, policy regulations have been successful in limiting forest harvesting. Currently, however, mountain forests are a battle ground regarding intensification of forest use, including logging of forests that have never been subject to clear-felling systems vs. nature conservation and wilderness as a base for rural development. The ability of mountain municipalities to encourage sustainable rural forest landscapes must be strengthened.

Forest restoration as a strategy to mitigate climate impacts on wildfire, vegetation, and water in semiarid forests.

Climate change and wildfire are interacting to drive vegetation change and potentially reduce water quantity and quality in the southwestern United States, Forest restoration is a management approach that could mitigate some of these negative outcomes. However, little information exists on how restoration combined with climate change might influence hydrology across large forest landscapes that incorporate multiple vegetation types and complex fire regimes. We combined spatially explicit vegetation and fire modeling with statistical water and sediment yield models for a large forested landscape (335,000ha) on the Kaibab Plateau in northern Arizona, USA. Our objective was to assess the impacts of climate change and forest restoration on the future fire regime, forest vegetation, and watershed outputs. Our model results predict that the combination of climate change and high-severity fire will drive forest turnover, biomass declines, and compositional change in future forests. Restoration treatments may reduce the area burned in high-severity fires and reduce conversions from forested to non-forested conditions. Even though mid-elevation forests are the targets of restoration, the treatments are expected to delay the decline of high-elevation spruce-fir, aspen, and mixed conifer forests by reducing the occurrence of high-severity fires that may spread across ecoregions. We estimate that climate-induced vegetation changes will result in annual runoff declines of up to 10%, while restoration reduced or reversed this decline. The hydrologic model suggests that mid-elevation forests, which are the targets of restoration treatments, provide around 80% of runoff in this system and the conservation of mid- to high-elevation forests types provides the greatest benefit in terms of water conservation. We also predict that restoration treatments will conserve water quality by reducing patches of high-severity fire that are associated with high sediment yield. Restoration treatments are a management strategy that may reduce undesirable outcomes for multiple ecosystem services.

Three-toed Woodpecker cavities in trees: A keystone structural feature in forests shows decadal persistence but only short-term benefit for secondary cavity-breeders

Abstract Primary cavity-producers like woodpeckers are often considered as keystone species, because they produce nest-sites also for several other cavity-nesting animals and, thus, maintain ecological webs of cavity-breeders. However, the detailed temporal dynamics of cavities and their lifetime occupancy rates and survival are not usually known which makes it difficult to assess the actual significance and full impact of primary cavity-breeders. In this study, we monitored cavities in a large forest landscape, covering the full lifetime of cavities. We focused on a mature and old-growth forest specialist cavity-breeder, the Three-toed Woodpecker Picoides tridactylus. The data include the annual occupancy history of 655 old cavities of the Three-toed Woodpecker in 86 territories in a 170-km2 area in southern Finland during 1987–2017. The study area included both managed and natural forest types. The median survival time of a cavity was 10 years, but there were significant differences between forest area types with a range of 7–13 years. The occupancy in all cavities was 21.3%, and the cavities were available for secondary cavity-breeders each year. There was a significant negative correlation between the occupancy and the age of the cavity. The first five years of a cavity were important for the total occupancy, and 86% of occupancies took place before the median age of the cavities. In cavities older than 15 years the occupancy was only 7%. The pattern was similar in all types of forests. Our results show that cavities made by Three-toed Woodpeckers have rather long lifespan but also that their active use by other cavity-breeding species is restricted mostly to few years only. The result indicates that new, fresh cavities are needed continuously in a forest landscape, in order to maintain the role that Three-toed Woodpecker has as a keystone species.

Организация природопользования в малонарушенных лесных территориях Сибири

The organization of forest management in intact forest landscapes (IFL) is currently an acute and insufficiently methodologically provided problem, which causes numerous discussions and disputes. Siberia is a wide area and heterogeneous in terms of the disturbance of the territory. The use of natural resources on such vast area has its own specifics, which must be taken into account. Intensive forest management, which covers a significant part of boreal forests, leads to a decrease in biodiversity. Evaluation of the structural, component and functional diversity of forest areas showed that not always one source gives complete information (for example, the absence of an indication of the forest type in the background surveys does not allow to determine the ecological-cenotic group (ECG) of the ground cover plants). The forest management project in the intact territory can be represented by a whole complex of elements (accounting of forest use in adjacent territories, study of background disturbances of the landscape, assessment of species and structural plant diversity, organization of «sparing forest use» in the zone of «limited forest use», identification and description of the most valuable sites by unified criteria, organization of an ecological network) that will support biodiversity and the implementation of environmental functions at the level of ecosystems (large forest landscape). The organization of nature management in IFL requires a whole range of knowledge on various issues of landscape design, ecology, geobotany, silviculture, forest inventory, geoinformation systems, etc. To do this, it is necessary to involve a wide range of stakeholders. Only such an approach will allow, on the one hand, to harmonize rational use of natural resources, on the other hand, to maximally preserve natural landscapes in their natural dynamics.

Losing a jewel-Rapid declines in Myanmar's intact forests from 2002-2014.

New and rapid political and economic changes in Myanmar are increasing the pressures on the country’s forests. Yet, little is known about the past and current condition of these forests and how fast they are declining. We mapped forest cover in Myanmar through a consortium of international organizations and environmental non-governmental groups, using freely-available public domain data and open source software tools. We used Landsat satellite imagery to assess the condition and spatial distribution of Myanmar’s intact and degraded forests with special focus on changes in intact forest between 2002 and 2014. We found that forests cover 42,365,729 ha or 63% of Myanmar, making it one of the most forested countries in the region. However, severe logging, expanding plantations, and degradation pose increasing threats. Only 38% of the country’s forests can be considered intact with canopy cover >80%. Between 2002 and 2014, intact forests declined at a rate of 0.94% annually, totaling more than 2 million ha forest loss. Losses can be extremely high locally and we identified 9 townships as forest conversion hotspots. We also delineated 13 large (>100,000 ha) and contiguous intact forest landscapes, which are dispersed across Myanmar. The Northern Forest Complex supports four of these landscapes, totaling over 6.1 million ha of intact forest, followed by the Southern Forest Complex with three landscapes, comprising 1.5 million ha. These remaining contiguous forest landscape should have high priority for protection. Our project demonstrates how open source data and software can be used to develop and share critical information on forests when such data are not readily available elsewhere. We provide all data, code, and outputs freely via the internet at (for scripts: https://bitbucket.org/rsbiodiv/; for the data: http://geonode.themimu.info/layers/geonode%3Amyan_lvl2_smoothed_dec2015_resamp)

Green infrastructure development at European Union's eastern border: Effects of road infrastructure and forest habitat loss

The functionality of forest patches and networks as green infrastructure may be affected negatively both by expanding road networks and forestry intensification. We assessed the effects of (1) the current and planned road infrastructure, and (2) forest loss and gain, on the remaining large forest landscape massifs as green infrastructure at the EU's eastern border region in post-socialistic transition. First, habitat patch and network functionality in 1996–98 was assessed using habitat suitability index modelling. Second, we made expert interviews about road development with planners in 10 administrative regions in Poland, Belarus and Ukraine. Third, forest loss and gain inside the forest massifs, and gain outside them during the period 2001–14 were measured. This EU cross-border region hosts four remaining forest massifs as regional green infrastructure hotspots. While Poland's road network is developing fast in terms of new freeways, city bypasses and upgrades of road quality, in Belarus and Ukraine the focus is on maintenance of existing roads, and no new corridors. We conclude that economic support from the EU, and thus rapid development of roads in Poland, is likely to reduce the permeability for wildlife of the urban and agricultural matrix around existing forest massifs. However, the four identified forest massifs themselves, forming the forest landscape green infrastructure at the EU's east border, were little affected by road development plans. In contrast, forest loss inside massifs was high, especially in Ukraine. Only in Poland forest loss was balanced by gain. Forest gain outside forest massifs was low. To conclude, pro-active and collaborative spatial planning across different sectors and countries is needed to secure functional forest green infrastructure as base for biodiversity conservation and human well-being.

Forest Loss in Protected Areas and Intact Forest Landscapes: A Global Analysis.

In spite of the high importance of forests, global forest loss has remained alarmingly high during the last decades. Forest loss at a global scale has been unveiled with increasingly finer spatial resolution, but the forest extent and loss in protected areas (PAs) and in large intact forest landscapes (IFLs) have not so far been systematically assessed. Moreover, the impact of protection on preserving the IFLs is not well understood. In this study we conducted a consistent assessment of the global forest loss in PAs and IFLs over the period 2000–2012. We used recently published global remote sensing based spatial forest cover change data, being a uniform and consistent dataset over space and time, together with global datasets on PAs’ and IFLs’ locations. Our analyses revealed that on a global scale 3% of the protected forest, 2.5% of the intact forest, and 1.5% of the protected intact forest were lost during the study period. These forest loss rates are relatively high compared to global total forest loss of 5% for the same time period. The variation in forest losses and in protection effect was large among geographical regions and countries. In some regions the loss in protected forests exceeded 5% (e.g. in Australia and Oceania, and North America) and the relative forest loss was higher inside protected areas than outside those areas (e.g. in Mongolia and parts of Africa, Central Asia, and Europe). At the same time, protection was found to prevent forest loss in several countries (e.g. in South America and Southeast Asia). Globally, high area-weighted forest loss rates of protected and intact forests were associated with high gross domestic product and in the case of protected forests also with high proportions of agricultural land. Our findings reinforce the need for improved understanding of the reasons for the high forest losses in PAs and IFLs and strategies to prevent further losses.

Invasibility of boreal wetland plant communities

AbstractQuestionHow does germination and establishment of non‐resident plant species differ among major types of wetland ecosystems in boreal forest landscapes?LocationA 250‐km2 large boreal forest landscape in northern Sweden.MethodsWe performed a germination and establishment experiment to test for differences between three major wetland types: riparian zones, open wetlands and forested wetlands. These wetland types differ ecologically, hydrologically and in their distribution in the landscape. Six species of vascular plant native to the region but absent or rare in one or more of the three wetland types were sown separately in plots with two different levels of disturbance (complete vegetation removal and control) and were monitored for 3 yr. For two species, seed‐sowing density was varied to test for effects of propagule pressure.ResultsAll six species were able to germinate and survive in all habitats and disturbance levels, suggesting that all three wetland types are invasible. There were positive correlations between germination or survival and species richness in resident vegetation for four out of six species, i.e. species‐rich sites were more invasible. The germination frequency did not vary with seed‐sowing density, indicating that density‐dependent effects were small. All species had higher survival in their resident habitat, while the effect of disturbance was small.ConclusionsThe results suggest that the low levels of plant invasion observed in boreal wetlands are better explained by low propagule pressure than high resistance to invasion. However, the habitat dependency of survival implies that population establishment is only expected in habitats to which the species are adapted. Nevertheless, levels of invasion might increase in the future, given that more species are being introduced as a result of increases in transport and trade.

Simulating stand-level harvest prescriptions across landscapes: LANDIS PRO harvest module design

Forest landscape models (FLMs) are an important tool for assessing the long-term cumulative effects of harvest over large spatial extents. However, they have not been commonly used to guide forest management planning and on-the-ground operations. This is largely because FLMs track relatively simplistic vegetation information such as age cohort presence/absence, forest type, and biomass that are incompatible with tree density and size on which most harvest prescriptions are based. We describe and demonstrate the newly developed harvest module of the LANDIS PRO FLM, which tracks density, size, basal area, and stocking by species age cohorts for each site (cell). With this quantitative information, the module can simulate basal area controlled harvest, stocking-level controlled harvest, and group selection harvest. Through user-specified harvest year (frequency), stand ranking, and species and age preference, the new module can simulate a wide variety of harvest prescriptions such as thinning from above and below, shelterwood, clear-cutting, and group selection. We applied the LANDIS PRO harvest module to a large (17 000 km2) central hardwood forest landscape in Missouri. The simulated harvest prescriptions produced realistic stand-scale results when plotted on Gingrich stocking charts. The harvest module improves on previous versions by allowing partial treatment of individual age-classes within a cell and reporting results in metrics commonly used in stand-scale silviculture. It provides a closer link between landscape-scale simulation methods and stand-scale management.

Optimising fuel treatments over time and space

Fuel treatments have been widely used as a tool to reduce catastrophic wildland fire risks in many forests around the world. However, it is a challenging task for forest managers to prioritise where, when and how to implement fuel treatments across a large forest landscape. In this study, an optimisation model was developed for long-term fuel management decisions at a landscape scale. Using a simulated annealing algorithm, the model optimises locations and timing of fuel treatments, while considering changes in forest dynamics over time, fire behaviour and spread, values at risk, and operational feasibility. The model employs the Minimum Travel Time algorithm in FlamMap and the Fire and Fuels Extension to the Forest Vegetation Simulator to assess spatial and temporal effects with and without fuel treatments. The objective function is set to minimise total expected loss from a landscape due to wildfires throughout the planning horizon. The model was applied to a 14 000-ha study landscape located on the west side of the Bitterroot Valley in Montana. Comparisons between the optimised and random solutions show that the model was able to strategically locate and schedule fuel treatments to efficiently reduce expected loss from the landscape.

A Framework for Assessing Conservation and Development in a Congo Basin Forest Landscape

An integrated framework for assessing conservation and development changes at the scale of a large forest landscape in the Congo Basin is described. The framework allows stakeholders to assess progress in achieving the often conflicting objectives of alleviating poverty and conserving global environmental values. The study shows that there was little change in either livelihood or conservation indicators over the period 2006 to 2008, and that the activities of conservation organizations had only modest impacts on either. The global economic down-turn in 2008 had immediate negative consequences for both local livelihoods and for biodiversity as people lost their employment in the cash economy and reverted to illegal harvesting of forest products. Weakness of institutions, and corruption were the major obstacles to achieving either conservation or development objectives. External economic changes had more impact on this forest landscape than either the negative or positive interventions of local actors.