Completed NRP 73 research project: Ecosystem services in forests

Megatrends such as climate change and the transition to cleaner energy are creating new challenges in the long-term safeguarding of our forest ecosystem services. The forest management strategy used influences which forest services are promoted as a priority. Forestry managers and owners have been planning their forests for centuries, primarily with a view to optimising timber yield. Today, Swiss forests are expected to perform a wide range of services, such as protecting against avalanches and mudflows, as well as providing a place for recreation. Some of these services can be performed simultaneously, while others compete with each other.

The project developed a statistical method for analysing forest areas. This provided the basis for three simulations for forestry operations covering the period up to 2060. Working with practice partners from the forestry sector, the simulations were used to define sustainable forest management strategies for different types of forest. The prototypes that were developed provide a decision-making aid for Swiss forest managers by enabling forestry operations to simulate the services that their forests will be able to deliver with greater or lesser effectiveness in the future.

The results show that the forestry operations in the Central Plateau and Alpine foothills that the researchers studied are already being managed in a very sustainable way. The investigation also shows that a total halt to timber use would have the lowest overall benefit to all operations. The project has thus generated new scientific insights, as well as a decision-making aid for forest managers and owners that can be used in the sustainable development of ecosystem services in Swiss forests.

 

More information:

More information about the research project

 

Current publications:

Mey, Reinhard; Zell, Jürgen; Thürig, Esther; Stadelmann, Golo; Bugmann, Harald; Temperli, Christian (2022). Tree species admixture increases ecosystem service provision in simulated spruce- and beech-dominated stands. In European Journal of Forest Research.

Mey, Reinhard; Stadelmann, Golo; Thürig, Esther; Bugmann, Harald; Zell, Jürgen (2021). From small forest samples to generalised uni‐ and bimodal stand descriptions. In Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 12(4), 634–645.

Stadelmann, Golo; Portier, Jeanne; Didion, Markus; Rogiers, Nele; Thürig, Esther (2021). From Paris to Switzerland: Four Pathways to a Forest Reference Level. In Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 4, 1–13.

Portier, Jeanne; Wunder, Jan; Stadelmann, Golo; Zell, Jürgen; Abegg, Meinrad; Thürig, Esther; Rohner, Brigitte (2021). ‘Latent reserves’: A hidden treasure in National Forest Inventories. In Journal of Ecology, 109(1), 369–383.

Thrippleton, Timothy; Blattert, Clemens; Bont, Leo Gallus; Mey, Reinhard; Zell, Jürgen; Thürig, Esther; Schweier, Janine (2021). A Multi-Criteria Decision Support System for Strategic Planning at the Swiss Forest Enterprise Level: Coping With Climate Change and Shifting Demands in Ecosystem Service Provisioning. In Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 4.

 

Contact:

Dr. Esther Thürig
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL

+41 44 739 22 36
esther.thuerig@wsl.ch