Planning and implementing forest operations to achieve ... - Woodweb

The maintenance of certain extrareserves after the Conclusions about the Romersberg forest study
completion of the regeneration phase will, for its
part, have no more than a very slight influence on As of this writing, several conclusions may be drawn
the revenue
from this study.
Discussion An encouraging outcome from past management
The economic studies that have just been described Apart from the relative rarity of saproxylophagous
highlight a cost linked to a better consideration of species of insects, due to the virtual disappearance of
biodiversity in forest management. In the short term, large trees in the 18th century, the findings of the
the forest manager's revenues thus drop by 10%. studies on different biodiversity factors can only be a
How are we to interpret this additional cost? source of comfort to foresters in terms of the
outcome of their on-going efforts covering the past
In a first approach, this extra cost can be interpreted 200 years to improve the stands in this range. In fact,
as a consequence of the choice of extensive and if few rarities have been discovered, which is not
natural silvicultural methods, resulting for the ONF surprising for a forest situated on a relatively
from the application of the national management homogeneous and ordinary substratum, the level of
targets set by the State. This extra cost would thus be biological diversity is high, particularly with regard
an evaluation of the value of biodiversity and to the birds and insect groups studied. For these
accordingly a sound estimation of what society--
species, there can be no doubt that the forester's
represented by the State, and with the ONF as its activities, involving the establishment of a relatively
guardian-is prepared to pay for "ordinary" balanced patchwork of stands of differing ages, has
biodiversity. In a more general way, it is thus had a positive effect on biodiversity.
importantto define sustainable funding sources to
meet this social demand. At the present time, the
Much needed follow-up
funding of such operations in state-owned forests is
guaranteed by the profits made by the ONF's The management measures proposed to take
activities-mainly from the sale of wood. If this biodiversity more fully into consideration are, in
source of funding were to be inadequate, other ways some instances, relatively novel. Their experimental
could be envisaged, such as the payment of nature means that a follow-up study of their impact
compensation by local authorities, or the on target species must be undertaken. This is why, in
development of products such as forest "eco- 1996, there will be follow-up studies of bats and
tourism', badgers. The amphibians in the three test pools will
also be studied, as will nesting pairs of collared
In a second approach, the extra cost due to the better flycatchers in four plots that are representative of the
consideration of biodiversity can be interpreted as an forest. Lastly, a simple and reliable method for
investment. In fact, the maintenance of a high level following up populations of saproxylophagous
ofbiodiversity helps to reduce health risks, helps to insects is currently being looked into.
reduce the vulnerability of stands to climatic
phenomena, and makes it possible to better stabilize Making use of a geographical information system
revenues by the diversity of the products supplied
[GIS]
(Barthod, 1994; Barthod, 1995). A precise
estimation of the profitability of this investment is The Romersberg forest has been one of the first
nevertheless quite difficult to make. forests, in France, to benefit from the use of a GIS
for the formulation of its management plan, in
Whatever interpretation may be made, the most particular for the visualization, in map form, of the
relevant and the most comprehensive measure for findings of the many studies carried out. But the
encouraging a consideration ofbiodiversity appears advantages of the GIS for the forest manager will
to be based on sound economic development of come fully to the fore in the annual follow-up of all
wood produced in an environment-friendly way, forest activities and operations, which will enable
which leads quite naturally into the current debate him to have a precise and constantly updated
about coo-certification, which we shall not go into
overview of the state of the forest. This is why all the
here. ONFs management departments will be equipped
with a GIS between 1996 and 1998.
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