New tools for balancing multiple forest values
Descision planning
Hello there, Eskil Mattsson, researcher at IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute. You are working on developing tools for sustainability assessment within Mistra Digital Forest, could you briefly tell us about your work on indicators within the programme?
– The work involves developing common and clearly defined methods for assessing the sustainability of Swedish forestry. The focus has been on developing indicators that capture several key aspects, such as climate impact, biodiversity, the recreational value of forests, jobs in the forestry sector, and the financial situation of forest owners. The method includes placing different sustainability values on a common, standardised scale in order to provide a comprehensive overview of how diverse sustainability aspects are affected by various future developments in Swedish forestry. Using future scenarios in the Heureka planning tool, we have investigated how different ways of managing the forest could affect these factors over time. The method makes it possible to calculate concrete, comparable values for individual large forest owners or forest owner associations, and to link the effects of forestry to clear sustainability targets.
Why is this important?
– Sustainability indicators can be used by both forestry companies and by decision-makers. They serve as a quantitative tool for assessing the sustainability of forestry and forest-based products. They also support forestry companies’ strategic work on various future scenarios for production. They also provide a foundation for political decisions that need to illustrate possible future development paths, for different types of forestry.
Where are you at the moment?
– The methodology has been further developed and refined in close collaboration with a scientific advisory group, and with representatives from the industry within the programme. The work has been characterised by an ongoing dialogue, in which scientific expertise and practical experience from industry have been combined, in order to ensure the methodology’s scientific quality, relevance and applicability. The methodology we have developed is described in a scientific article that is currently under review.
What is the next step? What remains to be done before the programme concludes?
– The method will be tested in a realistic property-level scenario in close collaboration with the industry. In our sustainability assessment, we also include the entire forestry value chain, including the industrial aspects, by further development of the BioMapp visualisation tool. The tool makes it possible to show different ways of using forest raw materials, and also to clearly illustrate how sustainability is affected at every stage, from the forest all the way to the finished product.