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Abstract: Forest subsidies are widely used to achieve policy objectives aimed at maintaining and supporting the provision of the various ecosystem services provided by forests. In the European Union, an important instrument is the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) within the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), but countries also have national subsidy systems. In both cases, individual countries determine which objectives they want to achieve with the subsidy schemes and which measures are supported. In this comparative study, we investigate which forest-related measures are subsidized across Europe and which forest owners, representing a very heterogeneous group, are involved in the activities of the subsidy systems. We collected data on subsidies paid out for forest-related measures from Austria, Finland, Germany, Slovenia and Sweden from the EAFRD funding period 2014–2020 for a comparison of the funded activities. Further, we analysed how subsidies were distributed among private forest owners with forest holdings of different sizes by performing G-tests to compare the observed with the expected subsidies received by forest owners in the different size categories. The results show that through the flexibility given by the CAP for countries to adjust their subsidy programmes to the specific national needs, EAFRD funds and equivalent national subsidies are indeed used for a wide range of activities instead of only a few following one common European goal. Reflecting the different needs and various forest functions, the subsidized activities range from the more ecology-oriented “investment to increase resistance and the ecological value of forests” to the more management-oriented “purchase of new machinery and new equipment for forestry operations”. In all five countries, small-scale forest owners with holdings smaller than 200 ha are the largest owner group and manage a large share of the forest area in private hands (from 47% in Austria to 97% in Slovenia). However, especially owners of the smallest holdings (< 20 ha) rarely use the funding scheme of the EAFRD framework and thus receive a disproportionately low share of subsidies. There might be several reasons for this. Small-scale forest owners are generally less involved regarding policy issues (including subsidy schemes) than owners of larger forest holdings and may not be aware of all funding opportunities. In addition, the considerable effort to apply, including project preparation, administration and documentation may be perceived as a barrier. It became clear that the current subsidy systems of the countries focus on different forest policy objectives. Our study further revealed that the documentation of subsidy distribution is partly unclear and inconsistent across countries hampering European comparisons. However, understanding current subsidy distribution is urgently needed for increasing the effectiveness of subsidy systems to achieve European policy goals of vital multifunctional forests.
Keywords: European agricultural fund for rural development, EAFRD, policy, incentives, multifunctional forests, small-scale forest owners, bioeconomy
Published in DiRROS: 05.01.2023; Views: 498; Downloads: 316
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Abstract: We determined the size of differences in stand and tree growth in semi-natural forests with respect to 16 reference soil groups. The forest area of Slovenia (11.8 thousand km2) was used as the study area, and reference soil units were derived from the national soil map at a 1:25,000 scale consisting of 10,781 polygons with an average size of 117.95 ha. Stand growth was defined as periodic stand basal area increment, while the growth of Norway spruce, silver fir, Scots pine, European beech and sessile oak trees was estimated by the periodic diameter increment of 238,349 dominant trees on 67,061 permanent sampling plots. A linear fixed-effects model and linear mixed-effect models were used for studying stand and tree growth in different site, stand and tree conditions. The soil unit was the dummy variable with Dystric Cambisols set as the reference category. Soil contributed 4.3 % to the explained variability of basal area increment and 4–27 % to the explained variability of the diameter increment of the five tree species. Soil was a stronger driver of stand and tree growth than climate or topography. Stand and tree species production rate on soil units was in the interval of −28 % to +5 % and −47 % to +14 % of that on the reference soil unit, respectively. Stand growth was the highest on Eutric Gleysols and the lowest on Histosols, and tree species generally exhibited the highest and the lowest growth rates on different soil units. We suggest that soil should be considered in growth models and studied interrelatedly with climatic, site and stand variables.
Keywords: reference soil groups, FAO soil unit, natural forest, stand growth, tree growth
Published in DiRROS: 29.12.2022; Views: 565; Downloads: 279
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Keywords: forest fire, Slovenian Karst
Published in DiRROS: 13.12.2022; Views: 597; Downloads: 85
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Abstract: Purpose of the Review One of the major threats to tree health, and hence the resilience of forests and their provision of ecosystem services, is new and emerging pests. Therefore, forest health monitoring is of major importance to detect invasive, emerging and native pest outbreaks. This is usually done by foresters and forest health experts, but can also be complemented by citizen scientists. Here, we review the use of citizen science for detection and monitoring, as well as for hypothesis-driven research and evaluation of control measures as part of forest pest surveillance and research. We then examine its limitations and opportunities and make recommendations on the use of citizen science for forest pest monitoring. Recent Findings The main opportunities of citizen scientists for forest health are early warning, early detection of new pests, monitoring of impact of outbreaks and scientific research. Each domain has its own limitations, opportunities and recommendations to follow, as well as their own public engagement strategies. The development of new technologies provides many opportunities to involve citizen scientists in forest pest monitoring. To enhance the benefits of citizen scientists’ inclusion in monitoring, it is important that they are involved in the cocreation of activities. Summary Future monitoring and research may benefit from tailor-made citizen science projects to facilitate successful monitoring by citizen scientists and expand their practice to countries where the forest health sector is less developed. In this sense, citizen scientists can help understand and detect outbreaks of new pests and avoid problems in the future.
Keywords: forest health, community science, forest management, awareness raising, forest protection
Published in DiRROS: 28.11.2022; Views: 474; Downloads: 225
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Abstract: The societal demands on forest management are becoming increasingly diverse, which will be reflected in decisions made by forest owners. We examined the willingness of private forest owners in Austria, Finland, Germany, Slovenia, and Sweden to participate in a contract-based payment scheme in which they were asked to apply a specific management strategy to promote either timber production or environmental goals. The preferences for the contract-based management and associated consequences in terms of profitability, biodiversity, carbon stock, and climate change-induced damages were addressed within a choice experiment. A majority of respondents across all countries agreed to participate in a payment scheme to promote environmental goals, while schemes purely targeted to increase wood production were found less attractive. Forest owners liked improvements in profitability and environmental attributes and disliked deterioration of these attributes. Differences among countries were found in the level of expected contract payments, and commonalities were found with respect to preferences towards environmental goals, including biodiversity and carbon stocks. Hence, new policies to target European forest subsidy to promote the provision of environmental goals would likely be acceptable.
Keywords: choice experiment, ecosystem services, forest policy, incentives, private forest owners
Published in DiRROS: 29.09.2022; Views: 503; Downloads: 270
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