E-tools: Evidence-based knowledge and tools for decision making on adapted forest management practices

To enable the transition away from intensive clear-cut forest management and towards alternative management practices such as continuous cover forestry (CCF), E-tools will expand the evidence base and tools available to decision makers regarding various forms of CCF.

We will start with mapping the demands, priorities and challenges of forest owners and forest managers regarding the use of forest decision support tools for CCF.

Using data from Swedish CCF field trials, we will develop growth and yield models specific for different CCF practices, including selective cutting, shelterwood systems and gap cutting. Such models are currently lacking due to the dominance of clearcut-based management.

We will implement the new models in the widely used forest decision support tool Heureka, thereby making them available to all its users.

Using the updated decision support tool, we will quantify the effects and benefits of a widespread application of adapted forest management practices, including CCF, mixed forests and long rotations, on property and national levels in terms of impact on ecosystem services as well as the forestry business.

To decrease the barriers regarding the use of adapted forest management practices even further, E-tools will contribute to the development of a free, user-friendly, web-based application for decision support that makes use of the new models and accounts for the identified demands of forest owners and forest managers.