Conference Proceedings - Sustainable Forest Management Network ...

Break-out Group 3
Session 2: How much and where should forests be fully protected in reserves?
We need applied science to answer this question. How much you need depends on the services you are
trying to get from the ecosystem in question; the answer should balance social, economic, and ecological
needs. It is hard to answer this question without determining what values you are trying to maintain
in the forest. This group recognized that these values are probably different around the world. As far as
changing current protected areas status in different regions, it was agreed that different areas of the
boreal have quite different challenges. It is particularly challenging to accomplish this shift in management
focus in areas with many private landowners. How are costs shared and how are protected areas
implemented on the ground?
Session 3: How can management effectively restore/recreate/maintain
biodiversity?
This break-out group generally agreed that researchers have a very good sense of what information we
have and what we are lacking. However, we do not generally know how to change practices on the
ground. Developing practical tools (e.g., the HCVF toolkit) was generally agreed to be an important
method for changing practices. We also do not know the relative effectiveness of these different methods
for maintain/restoring biodiversity.
Possible BorNet research questions
• We need to examine regulatory and legislative barriers to maintaining biodiversity around the
boreal, and use this document to inform policy-makers. What constraints are there in the boreal
to the protection of biodiversity (e.g., the tenure system in British Columbia, Canada)? What
different approaches are being used around the boreal?
• What values should be managed for in the boreal globally, what determines them, and where are
there concentrations of high values?
• Should conservation efforts be only in high conservation value forests or should they occur
outside of these too? We could examine this question through a two step process: first, use
habitat requirements of focal species; second, use maps of HCVF in a micro-scale.
• How do we maintain ecosystem function? What should be measured? How do we maintain
ecological function across scales?
• Within the TRIAD approach, how do we manage biodiversity in the “extensively managed” portion
of our forested land base?
• We also need to promote interdisciplinary studies for places where a lot of the land is privately
owned (i.e., Sweden). Education and public values are integral to any conservation effort, especially
in countries where a lot of harvesting is on private land.
• After listing these research ideas, this breakout group further narrowed possible tasks for BorNet
to the following three questions:
• What values should be managed for in the boreal globally, what determines them, and where are
there concentrations of high values?
• How do we maintain ecosystem function? What should be measured?
• How do the different governance structures meet the three pillars of sustainability?
CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS • BorNet International • Uppsala, Sweden • May 27 – 28, 2002 47