Multiple choice of goals in forestry- voluntary transition of Swedish forest ecosystems to increase multifunctionality & sustainability

Forest ecosystems offer a variety of ecosystem services (ESS), and studies show that values to society from heterogeneous stands are higher than from pure stands.

Nevertheless, even aged homogenous stands usually is the goal in Scandinavian forestry, potentially as forest owners perceive alternative methods as risky and costly while mainly contributing public goods.

There is a lack of knowledge of the variation in goals for forest owners and of factors influencing the willingness to implement alternative silvicultural practices, including perceived costs, benefits, and risks.

In this project, we will investigate which factors steer the prospective behaviours of private forest owners, to understand what limits and determines their goals and choice of practices.

We also investigate the role of professional advisers as influential change agents, and enhance the major decision support system used in forestry in Sweden for modelling a full range of ESS bundles.

We will simulate the expected delivery of ESS to forest owners and to society across the wide range of strategies and practices adopted and contrast four main scenarios: conventional even-aged forestry, continuous cover forestry, increased rotation periods and regeneration of mixed stands.

Our results will support a transition towards more resilient forest ecosystems and Sweden’s environmental goals, through enabling forest owners to make knowledge-based decisions for attaining diverse individual goals in forestry.