THE PRICE OF SILVER FIR (ABIES ALBA MILL.) CONSERVATION IN MIXED MOUNTAIN FORESTS

Transcription

1 THE PRICE OF SILVER FIR (ABIES ALBA MILL.) CONSERVATION IN MIXED MOUNTAIN FORESTS Andrej Ficko 1, Jörg Rössiger 1,2, Andrej Bončina 1 1 University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Forestry and Renewable Forest Resources, Vecna pot 83, 1 Ljubljana, Slovenia. address: andrej.ficko@bf.uni-lj.si. 2 Institute of Forest Management, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, Center of Life and Food Sciences Weihenstephan, Technische Universität München, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz Platz 2, Freising, Germany. Current affiliation: National Forest Center - Forest Research Institute Zvolen, T. G. Masaryka 22, 9692 Zvolen, Slovakia. Mountain Forest Management in a Changing World July , Smokovce

2 Mountain forests: Ecosystem services Fig.1: Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services in two types of treeline areas (48 ES) Sarkki, S., Ficko, A., Grunewald, K., Nijnik, M Benefits from and threats to European treeline ecosystem services: An exploratory study of stakeholders and governance. Regional Environmental Change, May 215, Online First: DOI 1.17/s

3 Biodiversity as ES Ficko, A., Poljanec, A., Bončina, A., 211. Do changes in spatial distribution, structure and abundance of silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) indicate its decline? Forest Ecology and Management 261: Biodiversity, tree species richness Abies alba Mill. has been one of the focal tree species in mountain forest conservation across Europe: species dieback in 198s, climate change impacts (drought), economic importance regeneration/recruitment failure due to overbrowsing and inappropriate past management

4 Anecdotal discourse between forest managers and game managers on the reasons for poor regeneration and recruitment of fir Your deers browse all my firs! You should shoot them more!

5 How to conserve fir in economically important and heavily browsed forests? Contradictory objectives may be reconciled by bringing also the non-market value of the ecosystems (e.g. biodiversity) into monetary value. Payments for ecosystem services (PES) (Engel et al., 28): a vehicle by which externalities are internalized (Jack et al., 28 and Kiss and Ferraro, 22). PES should be able to contribute to the maintenance of essential characteristics of the ecosystem. How much one should pay to increase the recruitment and keep the abundance of fir in mixed mountain forests??

6 N of firs in the dbh class (1,14] cm The price of silver fir conservation = - the annuity decrease that a profit maximizer suffers due to conservation management restrictions - the amount of money (i.e. payments) someone (e.g. a conservationist) is willing to pay to compensate for the annuity decrease Trade-off curves Forest type 1 Alps Forest type 2 Dinaric Mts Forest type 3 Pohorje Mts Annuity ( /ha) 1

7 The matrix transition model (Buongiorno and Michie, 198): development of stands in 3 forest types over a period of 1 years Figure from: ROESSIGER, J., FICKO, A., CLASEN, C., GRIESS, V. C., KNOKE, T Variability in growth of trees in uneven-aged stands displays the need for optimizing diversified harvest diameters. European Journal of Forest Research, submitted. 2 scenarios: Profit MAXimization, CONServation, Objective functions in the optimization: MAX scenario: profit maximization CONS scenario: Maximization of the number of silver fir trees in the smallest dbh class.

8 Forest types A, B, C Ficko, A., Poljanec, A., Bončina, A., 211. Do changes in spatial distribution, structure and abundance of silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) indicate its decline? Forest Ecology and Management 261:

9 Table 1: Characteristics of three forest types with silver fir Site characterization Forest management unit Forest type Julian Alps W. Dinarides Pohorje Pre-alpine silver firbeech Dinaric silver fir-beech Silver fir forests on non- forests forests carbonate bedrock Radlje desni breg and Jelovica and Notranji Sneznik and Leskova Lovrenc na Pohorju (19,643 Bohinj (15,23 ha) dolina (551 ha) ha) N of permanent sample plots Year of first/second inventory 1992/ / /23 Number of trees callipered in both inventories 35,28 9,846 7,994 Mean elevation (5 th /95 th percentiles) (m) 111 (6/14) 91 (75/121) 8 (4/137) Mean annual precipitation (5 th /95 th percentiles) (mm) 2416 (23/29) 299 (19/23) 144 (125/17) Mean annual temperature (5 th / 95 th percentiles) ( C) 5.4 (5./5.7) 6.7 (5./7.) 7.2 (5./9.) Bedrock Carbonate Carbonate Siliceous Mean soil depth (5 th /95 th percentiles) (cm) 37.7 (27./46.) 6.3 (52./65.) 62.2 (44./11.) Mean ph (5 th /95 th percentiles) 5.2 (4.7/6.3) 4.8 (3.8/5.5) 4. (3./4.5) Prevailing forest vegetation communities Homogyno sylvestris- Dryopterido-Abietetum syn.: Omphalodo-Fagetum Fagetum Galio rotundifolii-abietetum Site productivity (m 3 ha -1 yr -1 ) (Kadunc et al., 214) Standing volume (m 3 ha -1 ) Silver fir Tree species composition (% of standing volume) Annual recruitment (N ha 1 ) Red deer (Cervus elaphus) population density (N km -2 ) (Ficko et al., 211) Roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) population density (N km -2 ) (Ficko et al., 211) Regeneration and browsing rates for silver fir (Bončina et al., 24) European beech Norway spruce Silver fir European beech Norway spruce Height class N/ha % browsed N/ha % browsed N/ha % browsed 19 cm ,453 No data 2 49 cm No data 5 89 cm cm cm 5 cm dbh No data

10 N of firs in the dbh class (1,14] cm Fir conservation costs nothing: if MAX is practiced firs/ha for decrease in the annuity / PES 3 2 Annuity ( /ha) 41 firs/ha for decrease in the annuity / PES 11 firs/ha for decrease in the annuity / PES 1 Alps Dinaric Mts Pohorje Mts

11 N of firs in the dbh class (1,14] cm The number of small-diameter firs can be easily increased by no loss in the maximum profit in the Pohorje Mts firs/ha for, i.e. +7 firs/ha for free 41 firs/ha for, i.e. + firs/ha for free Alps Dinaric Mts firs/ha for, i.e. + firs/ha for free 1 Pohorje Mts Annuity ( /ha)

12 N of firs in the dbh class (1,14] cm Fir conservation is cheap in Pohorje and the Alps but costly and ineffective in Dinaric Mts firs/ha for 2, i.e. +18 firs/ha for only 2 profit loss per year / PES firs/ha for 4, i.e. +3 firs/ha for 4 profit loss per year / PES Alps Dinaric Mts firs/ha for 12, i.e. +4 firs/ha for 12 profit loss per year / PES 1 Pohorje Mts Annuity ( /ha)

13 N of firs in the dbh class (1,14] cm Maximum number of small-diameter firs firs/ha for 2, i.e. +18 firs for 2 46 firs/ha for 24, i.e. +5 firs for 24 Alps Dinaric Mts Pohorje Mts 16 firs/ha for 5, i.e. +5 firs for Annuity ( /ha)

14 N of firs in the dbh class (1,14] cm Although someone is willing to pay for fir conservation and the owner is willing to suffer profit loss that does not help to conserve silver fir in Dinaric Mts! firs/ha for whatever how much +18 firs/ha for >2 46 firs/ha for whatever how much +5 firs/ha for >24 Alps Dinaric Mts Pohorje Mts 16 firs/ha for whatever how much +5 firs/ha for > Annuity ( /ha)

15 N of firs in the dbh class (1,14] cm The price of silver fir conservation N = 63 firs/ha irrespective of how much someone 63 firs/ha is willing for 2 to pay for conservation +18 firs/ha for >2 N = 46 firs/ha irrespective of how much firs/ha for someone firs/ha is for willing 24 to pay for conservation 44 firs/ha for 4 +5 firs/ha for >24 Alps Dinaric Mts Pohorje Mts N firs/ha 15 = for firs/ha 16 firs/ha 5 for 12 irrespective of the money available +5 firs/ha for > Annuity ( /ha)

16 Lessons-learned / Conclusions The conservation can be achieved without profit loss conservation goes hand in hand with production No money can help to conserve species if fundamental problems are not solved. PES? Continuos cover forestry is limited in its capacity to restore tree species populations suffering from recruitment failure

17 Thank you for your attention! Photo: A. Ficko