Diversifying Forest Landscape Management—A Case Study of a Shift from Native Forest Logging to Plantations in Australian Wet Forests
Natural forests have many ecological, economic and other values, and sustaining them is a challenge for policy makers and forest managers. Conventional approaches to forest management such as those based on maximum sustained yield principles disregard fundamental tenets of ecological sustainability...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-03-01
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| Series: | Land |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/3/407 |
| _version_ | 1797446148269539328 |
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| author | David Lindenmayer Chris Taylor |
| author_facet | David Lindenmayer Chris Taylor |
| author_sort | David Lindenmayer |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Natural forests have many ecological, economic and other values, and sustaining them is a challenge for policy makers and forest managers. Conventional approaches to forest management such as those based on maximum sustained yield principles disregard fundamental tenets of ecological sustainability and often fail. Here we describe the failure of a highly regulated approach to forest management focused on intensive wood production in the mountain ash forests of Victoria, Australia. Poor past management led to overcutting with timber yields too high to be sustainable and failing to account for uncertainties. Ongoing logging will have negative impacts on biodiversity and water production, alter fire regimes, and generate economic losses. This means there are few options to diversify forest management. The only ecologically and economically viable option is to cease logging mountain ash forests altogether and transition wood production to plantations located elsewhere in the state of Victoria. We outline general lessons for diversifying land management from our case study. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T13:37:03Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-67da0fa16c4d4044a2d3574b91d951ab |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2073-445X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T13:37:03Z |
| publishDate | 2022-03-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Land |
| spelling | doaj.art-67da0fa16c4d4044a2d3574b91d951ab2023-11-30T21:11:28ZengMDPI AGLand2073-445X2022-03-0111340710.3390/land11030407Diversifying Forest Landscape Management—A Case Study of a Shift from Native Forest Logging to Plantations in Australian Wet ForestsDavid Lindenmayer0Chris Taylor1Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, AustraliaFenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, AustraliaNatural forests have many ecological, economic and other values, and sustaining them is a challenge for policy makers and forest managers. Conventional approaches to forest management such as those based on maximum sustained yield principles disregard fundamental tenets of ecological sustainability and often fail. Here we describe the failure of a highly regulated approach to forest management focused on intensive wood production in the mountain ash forests of Victoria, Australia. Poor past management led to overcutting with timber yields too high to be sustainable and failing to account for uncertainties. Ongoing logging will have negative impacts on biodiversity and water production, alter fire regimes, and generate economic losses. This means there are few options to diversify forest management. The only ecologically and economically viable option is to cease logging mountain ash forests altogether and transition wood production to plantations located elsewhere in the state of Victoria. We outline general lessons for diversifying land management from our case study.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/3/407sustainable forest managementforest historypattern and processfire regimesbiodiversityecosystem values |
| spellingShingle | David Lindenmayer Chris Taylor Diversifying Forest Landscape Management—A Case Study of a Shift from Native Forest Logging to Plantations in Australian Wet Forests Land sustainable forest management forest history pattern and process fire regimes biodiversity ecosystem values |
| title | Diversifying Forest Landscape Management—A Case Study of a Shift from Native Forest Logging to Plantations in Australian Wet Forests |
| title_full | Diversifying Forest Landscape Management—A Case Study of a Shift from Native Forest Logging to Plantations in Australian Wet Forests |
| title_fullStr | Diversifying Forest Landscape Management—A Case Study of a Shift from Native Forest Logging to Plantations in Australian Wet Forests |
| title_full_unstemmed | Diversifying Forest Landscape Management—A Case Study of a Shift from Native Forest Logging to Plantations in Australian Wet Forests |
| title_short | Diversifying Forest Landscape Management—A Case Study of a Shift from Native Forest Logging to Plantations in Australian Wet Forests |
| title_sort | diversifying forest landscape management a case study of a shift from native forest logging to plantations in australian wet forests |
| topic | sustainable forest management forest history pattern and process fire regimes biodiversity ecosystem values |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/3/407 |
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