Economic and production consequences of current forest management in mature Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) forests in Lithuania

Sammanfattning: Forestry takes up a major part in the economy of Northern Europe countries. The aim of this work is to evaluate the economic and production consequences in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) stands in Lithuania based on the data of the National Forest Inventory (NFI). Scots pine stands cover the biggest area of Lithuanian forests. It this thesis, it was decided to evaluate only the thinnings of the IV forest group (commercial forests) where the economical profit is the major aim. One of the tasks was to summarize and critically evaluate the intensity of thinnings carried in Lithuanian Scots pine stands. The results were achieved after collecting the necessary data and creating a database. After analysing the NFI data, it was noticed that thinnings in Scots pine are of the same intensity in all the stands of heights between 13 to 30 metres and more. The stocking level after the thinning meets the recommendations. One important detail was that many light and very light thinnings are carried out in Lithuania, which may be unprofitable. It was also noted that thinnings were often done in stands of 25 metres and higher which can increase the risk of windthrow. The second task was to find alternative rotation lengths that would be economically beneficial and compare them to current ones. In order to find out the alternative forest management models, stand modelling software “Heureka” and economic analysis was used. It was estimated that current rotation ages of Lithuanian Scots pine stands are longer than the ones that would be most profitable. There was no significant extension of the most profitable felling age when the thinning regimes are of different intensity. The results of this thesis can be helpful analysing the problems of effectiveness and economical profit in the forestry sector of Lithuania.