Growing models for continuous cover forestry (JatKa)

Projects of the National Forest Strategy
Projects of the Catch the Carbon -programme

Participants

Natural Resources Institute Finland

Description

Duration: 2020-2022

In continuous cover forestry, forest is managed so that treeless regeneration stage can be avoided.
CCF has been claimed to be assumed to be more sustainable management method compared to even-aged forestry, although research-based knowledge about management impacts is still quite sparse.

Since the renewal of Finnish forest legislation, CCF is regarded as an equal alternative management
strategy in forestry along with prevailing even-aged management. The interest of forest owners to
practice CCF has been increasing during the last years. However, there do not exist flexible decision support tools, which include possibility to assess the impacts of CCF on sustainability of applied practices.

The project promotes availability and use of research-based information in decision making in forest management. Management models and guidelines for CCF practices will be developed, and included in existing decision support system developed by Luke. Further these tools will be applied in Metsään.fi portal, which includes eServices for Forest Owners and Service providers.

The outcome of this project is a simulation tool, which enables forest owners and other forest sector actors to identify forest stands in which CCF would be viable management alternative to even-aged management. The simulation tool model enables a comprehensive assessment of the impacts of forest management alternatives and provides tailored management alternatives utilizing efficiently all the available information on growing stock, site properties and treatment history.

Further information

Natural Resources Institute Finland's project page (in Finnish)