A comparison of the effects of sustainable forest management regulations on rotation length and structural diversity
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Regulations designed to promote sustainable forest management often direct managers towards specific rotation lengths and practices. In some instances, the required rotation differs from an optimal economic rotation and falls short in measures of structural diversity. The enactment of SFM could lead to solutions far from optimal especially when the modeling assumptions are not continuously revisited to accommodate forestry dynamic. In this study we assessed the mandated or generally accepted rotations across five areas representing different levels of rigidity of the SFM regulations: Romania, Czech Republic, Belgium, and the south-east USA. The regions were selected to cover a perceived gradient of SFM enforcement, from very strict
(the case of Romania) to very flexible (the case of USA). We focused on two indications of sustainability: land expectation value (LEV), as representing the economic component of SFM, and structural diversity, measured by diameter distribution, as representing the ecological component of SFM. We found that strict enforcement of SFM rules can lead to a decrease in LEV of almost 50%, and a homogenization of the forest ecosystem by approximately one third – in the case of Romania. Flexibility in policies and practices is crucial in ensuring SFM, as even in countries with high population density, such as Belgium or Czech Republic, the two indicators do not differ considerably from their optimum. As expected, the prescriptions in the USA, which is considered the country with one of the most flexible forest management strategies, regardless of the region, provides the largest LEV and structural diversity.
Keywords: policies, adaptive and integrated management
ID: 3491735