The emerging bioeconomy in Europe requires the intensification of forestry to meet the market demand for biomass. The policy conflict between increasing production and halting biodiversity loss has fueled debates in Sweden on sustainable forest use and management in recent years. While one side calls for increased production, the other side argues that this strategy jeopardizes environmental goals regarding biodiversity and counteracts sustainable forest management. In this study, a socio-cultural valuation approach was applied to examine perspectives of stakeholders representing environmental and production interests in Östergötland, southern Sweden on forest ecosystem services and sustainable forest management. Based on the values and challenges described by the stakeholders, this study aimed to identify pathways towards sustainable forest management. The results showed a divergence of views on whether intensification compromises environmental goals. While some stakeholders placed a high value on carbon substitution and emphasized the opportunities for sustainable development, other stakeholders were critical of the framing of intensification as sustainable. Despite the disagreements, opportunities were identified that could promote SFM. Possible ways forward include strengthening the resilience of production forests by increasingly adopting continuous cover forestry and mixed forests, redistributing production toward more long-lived forest products, and increasing the share of nature reserves. In addition, compensation funding and education might be viable ways to address conflicts arising from landowner conservation actions. To address conflicting perspectives the results point towards the need to resume dialogue and enable improved communication.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:liu-182419 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Heimes, Katharina Charlotte |
| Publisher | Linköpings universitet, Tema Miljöförändring |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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