A theoretical framework to assess the impacts of forest management on the recreational value of European forests (original) (raw)
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2011
EFORWOOD seeks to develop models for sustainability impact assessments of the European forestry wood chain. This report discusses how and to what extent recreational values can be incorporated into the models. Classic approaches to the modelling of scenic beauty of forests are discussed using public preferences for, and silvicultural characteristics of, individual stands. It is argued that such approaches would be difficult to apply at a European level given the precision required to derive credible results. Instead a recreational assessment framework is proposed based upon the typology of Forest Management Alternatives and phases of development employed by EFORWOOD WP2.1 which together produce a matrix of 20 forest stand types. It is proposed that recreational scores are derived by WP2.3 during the final year of the project for each forest stand type through expert consultation using a Delphi process. The forest growth simulators used by EFORWOOD for Europe (EFISCEN), and for each ...
Simulating effects of forest management on selected public forest goods and services: A case study
Forest Ecology and Management, 2005
Silvicultural interventions alter forest characteristics such as stand structure, tree species composition and developmental stage. These forest characteristics in turn influence the quality and quantity of public goods and services a forest provides, such as space for recreation, clean water, and air purification. In this paper, we use a forest growth simulator and a geographical information system (GIS) to assess the effects of three silvicultural strategies on recreational suitability, water purification potential and air purification potential in a peri-urban catchment in Switzerland. For each of the three services, an index was developed to capture the suitability of a stand for providing the service. The growth simulator SILVA 2.2 was used to project forest development over 50 years under the three silvicultural strategies BU 'business as usual' (small patch cuts, Swiss selection system), NI 'no intervention', and MA 'mass production' (clearcuts and plantations of Picea abies). In all three strategies, road maintenance continued. The outputs of SILVA 2.2 were transferred into the GIS. Indices for the three services were calculated and aggregated over the study area.
Evaluating approaches to predict recreation values of new forest sites
Journal of Forest Economics, 2007
We estimate changes in the total recreation value over a 20 year time period of a large newly established forest, using a mixed specification of random utility models and a geographic information system. The models are estimated using data from two identical surveys in 1977 and 1997. We conduct three different spatial value transfers and test these on the new forest. Results suggest that the recreation value of the new forest increased 70 times over the 20 years, primarily due the maturing of the forest and changed patterns of visitor behaviour. The value transfer to the new forest ranges between an underestimate of 57% to an overestimate of 349%, depending on the sampling of the choice set used as the study sites in the transfer.
Recreational value of regional forests: the case of Belgium's Walloon region
The Walloon forest i , which is geographically close to densely populated areas of Atlantic Europe, fulfils an important recreational function. Various surveys were set up, among which a large-scale statistical survey in 40 woodlands, distributed throughout the Walloon forest and resulting in over 4,000 questionnaires collected. These give information about the recreational activities carried out in the forest, which in turn helps determine the unit value of visits. The regional value is calculated on the basis of the estimated number of visits annually for the total woodlands in the region. Contingent Valuation is used to estimate recreational values for this specific data set comprising the whole regional level with heterogeneous visits and comparisons with other methods and other hypotheses are undertaken. Although the valuation varies depending on the method and the application modalities selected, it is very large and confirms the importance of this non-benefit service and the weight it could carry in terms of regional forest policy.
Research for rural development, 2019
Forests offer a wide variety of ecosystem services, including cultural or recreational services. In that sense, stateowned forest lands hold the biggest responsibility to acknowledge and provide these services, where it is economically and ecologically viable. Suitability analysis has been extensively used to provide information on species conservation measures, and it is possible to apply similar techniques for potential supply of recreational services. A simple weighted overlay analysis was conducted to locate forest land areas most suitable for potential recreational activities. Several criteria were selected for the analysis, including forest stand parameters such as forest stand age, forest stand type and species, topographical diversity and remoteness. Basis for the weighting of the selected criteria were obtained from the social surveys, previous research work done in Latvia and the Baltics, and European scale scientific data on recreation preferences. The analysis showed that 20% of the total model area analyzed provide substantially high recreation potential. Furthermore, these preliminary data can be used for surveying and facilitating community involvement processes. Local tourism and nature leisure activities can be promoted by exploring possibilities of alternative forestry planning options, utilizing such multifunctional assessments of recreational supply.
Vìsnik Sumsʹkogo deržavnogo unìversitetu, 2021
The current state of spatial and territorial development of recreational nature management in Ukraine is characterized by the fact that the country has significant natural resource potential, unique recreational resources, as well as a valuable natural reserve fund. This proves that the possibility for further development and forestland use for recreational purposes, and the formation of spatial-territorial recreational systems with the involvement of forestlands can be widely developed. At the same time, this is a prerequisite for the active development of market relations in the field of recreational and tourist management, since the diversity and uniqueness of forest resource potential creates the opportunity to gain competitive advantages in using separate recreational resources that will provide high demand and prices for them. From these perspectives, the purpose of the paper is to deepen economic assessment of recreational forest resource potential for ensuring the formation ...
Forest Systems, 2010
The gradual integration of different goods and services offered by forest systems to society into decisionmaking in the management of these resources makes it necessary to have tools available which permit a valuation of the natural assets associated with these ecosystems; for instance, recreational activities, characterized by an incessant demand in forest systems from many years previously. It seems to make sense to think that if it is wished to set up any wise forest planning of activities which entail a management of the resources (forest exploitation, reserve establishment, fire prevention, etc.), it would be necessary to integrate into it, from an economic perspective, the different goods and services taken into consideration. Therefore, to make that integration effective, a spatial component should
For forest sustainability and vulnerability assessment, the landscape scale is considered to be more and more relevant as the stand level approaches its known limitations. This review, which describes the main forest landscape simulation tools used in the 20 European case studies of the European project " Future-oriented integrated management of European forest landscapes " (INTEGRAL), gives an update on existing decision support tools to run landscape simulation from Mediterranean to boreal ecosystems. The main growth models and software available in Europe are described, and the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches are discussed. Trades-offs between input efforts and output are illustrated. Recommendations for the selection of a forest landscape simulator are given. The paper concludes by describing the need to have tools that are able to cope with climate change and the need to build more robust indicators for assessment of forest landscape sustainability and vulnerability.
Recreational Evaluation of Forests in Urban Environments: Methodological and Practical Aspects
Sustainability
This literature review shows that there is no up-to-date common approach to assess the recreational potential of forests. The aim of the study is to present methodological and practical aspects of the evaluation of forests in urban environments for recreational purposes based on the example of urban forests in Poznań (Poland). In this research, the following evaluation criteria were selected: types of forest habitats, ages of dominant species, stand composition, stocking index, the share of undergrowth, soil cover, canopy closure, and surface water. All these criteria are presented in the forest management plan (FMP). We prove that the majority of stands within the study area (81.86%) have medium potential for recreational purposes. Moreover, regarding recreation services, documents existing within the study area are not specified enough. The undoubted advantages of the proposed method are a forestry perspective on the problem, a uniform dataset included in FMPs, data availability, ...