Alternativa skogsbruksmetoder i Norden : ett välbehövligt komplement?

Sammanfattning: Clearcutting systems have been the dominating silvicultural approach during the last decades in the Nordic countries. While economically rational, it is also leading to a trivialisation of the flora and fauna, and may result in negative reactions of people in urban settings. As a consequence of this, and a more diversified view on which goods and services forests should deliver, there is an increasing interest in broadening the range of silvicultural methods that are used. The term continuous cover forestry (CCF) represents a suite of methods that have gained increasing interest in the Nordic countries. In CCF a considerable amount of the trees are left after harvest to favour values that require a continuity of tree-covered areas. There are thus hopes that this method will meet the needs for maintaining biodiversity and satisfy social and cultural values. In this paper I review literature regarding CCF in the Nordic Countries and discuss the consequences of CCF methods on ecological, economic, social and cultural values. To evaluate the effect for the maintenance of ecological integrity using biodiversity as a proxy I focus on the extent to which CCF could mimic the natural disturbance regimes to which specialised organisms are adapted. To learn about CCF's effect on economy, literature has been reviewed. In particular one of latest economic analysis regarding a new CCF management concept called "Naturkultur" was reviewed. This method suggests that this type of forest management is economically superior to the traditional forest management regimes. However, other analyses claim the opposite. The CCF's possibility to benefit cultural values is evaluated in terms of its usefulness in cultural landscapes by preserving certain structures and the species richness that comes with these landscapes. Could forests managed by CCF improve the social dimension of forests? Potentially CCF could be a tool to engineer forests for social activities. Some possibilities related to esthetical values, recreation and tourism are examined. To conclude, CCF can complement conventional forest methods in the Nordic counties by favouring ecological, cultural and social factors. This is especially interesting since ecology, and socio-cultural factors are of equal or almost equal importance as economy in the Nordic forest policies. To favour ecological values CCF does not need to totally replace clear-cuts. Instead it could be used at certain places as an alternative to clearcuts and as a complement to protected areas. If properly applied, CCF could work as a smooth transition between forests of high conservation value and the surrounding forests managed with conventional methods. However, there are differences in the potential for the different Nordic counties to manage their forests with CCF. To better understand the long term economical consequences of CCF more research is needed on this topic. Examples on research that is lacking in this area is: • Can CCF provide saw timber of higher quality than conventional forest methods? • Would the tourism industry benefit from CCF? • Could CCF in forests close to urban areas lead to an increment of recreational and exercise related visitors and thereby contribute lowered costs of the medical care? Finally, there is a need to find out whether these and other possible sources of income can coexist in a landscape so that a forested area in the future can get its income from other sectors than just the timber industry.