Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), Sustainable Forestry Group, Zuercherstrasse 111, CH 8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland.
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), GIS Group, Zuercherstrasse 111, CH 8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland.
J Environ Manage. 2022 Jan 15;302(Pt B):114099. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.114099. Epub 2021 Nov 18.
Efficient forest operations are required for the provision of biodiversity and numerous ecosystem services, such as wood production, carbon sequestration, protection against natural hazards and recreation. In numerous countries, under difficult terrain conditions, the costs of forest management and harvesting are not covered by timber revenue. One possible option to increase the cost-effectiveness of the forestry sector is the application of state-of-the-art harvesting and extraction techniques, so-called best suitable harvesting methods. We present a case study from Switzerland, where a lack of competitiveness in the forestry sector is of particular interest, with the aim of quantifying the efficiency gains if estimated best suitable harvesting methods were to be rigorously applied instead of the currently applied harvesting methods. For this purpose, we developed a spatial decision support system to allocate estimated best suitable harvesting methods to plots, while concurrently considering hauling route limitations, extraction route properties and stand characteristics. Our approach was based on productivity models and supported with expert-defined decision trees. The evaluation of the estimated best suitable harvesting methods and the comparison with the currently applied harvesting methods were completed for all 6500 National Forest Inventory (NFI) plots in Switzerland. We draw the following three major conclusions from our study: First, our modeling approach is an effective method to allocate estimated best suitable harvesting methods to NFI plots. Second, applying estimated best suitable harvesting methods would lead to cost reductions, in particular in the regions that include steep terrain and where harvesting mainly relies on cable- and air based extraction methods. Third, assuming an average timber price of 75 CHF m , 64 % instead of 52 % of the forest area could be harvested economically over the whole country if estimated best suitable methods were applied. This advantage would mainly be caused by a shift towards more mechanized harvesting methods. Improving the cost-effectiveness of the forestry sector is of high global relevance, as the increased use of domestic timber resources is a cost-efficient way to reduce atmospheric carbon emissions. The methodological framework described here was developed for Switzerland in particular, but it could be applied to Central Europe and other parts of Europe with a large amount of mountain forests.
为了提供生物多样性和众多生态系统服务，例如木材生产、碳封存、防止自然灾害和娱乐，需要高效的森林作业。在许多国家，在地形条件困难的情况下，森林管理和采伐的成本无法通过木材收入来覆盖。提高林业部门成本效益的一种可能选择是应用最先进的采伐和提取技术，即所谓的最佳适用采伐方法。我们展示了一个来自瑞士的案例研究，该案例特别关注林业部门缺乏竞争力的问题，目的是量化如果严格应用估计的最佳适用采伐方法而不是当前应用的采伐方法，可以提高效率。为此，我们开发了一个空间决策支持系统，将估计的最佳适用采伐方法分配到各个地块，同时考虑到运输路线限制、提取路线特性和林分特征。我们的方法基于生产力模型，并辅以专家定义的决策树。我们对所有 6500 个瑞士国家森林清查 (NFI) 地块的估计最佳适用采伐方法进行了评估，并与当前应用的采伐方法进行了比较。我们从研究中得出以下三个主要结论：首先，我们的建模方法是一种将估计的最佳适用采伐方法分配到 NFI 地块的有效方法。其次，应用估计的最佳适用采伐方法将导致成本降低，特别是在地形陡峭且主要依赖于电缆和空中提取方法的地区。第三，假设木材平均价格为 75 瑞士法郎/立方米，如果应用估计的最佳适用方法，全国 64%的森林面积而不是 52%的森林面积可以在经济上进行采伐。这一优势主要是由于向更机械化的采伐方法的转变。提高林业部门的成本效益具有很高的全球相关性，因为增加国内木材资源的使用是减少大气碳排放的一种具有成本效益的方式。这里描述的方法框架是专门为瑞士开发的，但可以应用于中欧和欧洲其他拥有大量山地森林的地区。
