scholarly journals Inflation of wood resources in European forests: The footprints of a big-bang

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. e0259795
Author(s):  
Jean-Daniel Bontemps

The current increase in European forest resources forms a singularity across the globe. Whether this trend will persist, and how biological and economic trends feature it form crucial issues to green economy challenges and C sequestration. The present screening of Forest Europe 2015 statistics explored the features, inertia and limits of this expansion, and its relationships with countries’ development, forest management and trade, intense in this area of the world. Persisting footprint of past demographic pressure on forests was identified, with opposed traces on their area and growing stock density. Steady growing stock (GS) increases, proportional to GS, not density-limited, and sustained by forest area increases, supported the view of an inflationary forest dynamic. Economic development and liberalism fostered both forest exploitation and production, yielding no significant impact on GS changes. Wood exports exerted a tension on forest exploitation and GS changes, thus lowering GS inflation but providing a resource security margin in the face of expected climate threats. Conflicting a common view, GS inflation and moderate felling-to-increment ratios make increased use of wood resources and C sequestration reconcilable, and GS expansion timely for ongoing EU forest policy processes. Anticipated adverse impacts of ongoing climate change were not clearly identified in these statistics.

2014 ◽  
Vol 165 (5) ◽  
pp. 105-112
Author(s):  
Willi Zimmermann

Annual review of forest policy 2013 At the federal level, forest policy in 2013 was marked by a high number of implementation tasks on the one hand, and by the preparation of a renewed revision of the Forest Law on the other hand. The latter involved not only formal changes to individual legal articles, but also new regulations to protect against dangerous and harmful organisms, about the advancement of timber production and climate change adaptation. The traditional implementation tasks in 2013 included the approval of the budget, the controlling of different program agreements, the processing of parliamentary interventions as well as providing diverse documents. Particularly noteworthy this past year was a Federal Court decision, which, in contradiction to the cantonal lower court, classified test-drilling in a forest as a disadvantageous non-forest exploitation that requires authorization. At the international level, the adoption of a European Forest Convention was hindered primarily because the decision about the location of the secretariat stalled. In terms of forest-relevant policies, particularly spatial planning and energy policy can be expected to have noticeable effects on forests.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (17) ◽  
pp. 4615 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seyed Meysam Khoshnava ◽  
Raheleh Rostami ◽  
Rosli Mohamad Zin ◽  
Dalia Štreimikienė ◽  
Alireza Yousefpour ◽  
...  

Global economic trends have shown the progression of social inequalities and environmental deterioration in the grey economy. New economic practices and policies need to be developed in order to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs). A green economy (GE) has a correlative role with the implementation of sustainable development (SD), which could revive the grey economy, human well-being, and social equity, as well as substantially decrease environmental risks and ecological scarcities. This study aims to develop a hybrid methodological and mathematical approach to prioritize the most effective variables from classified GE and SDGs criteria (23 criteria) to implement SD. This study has deliberated over the Decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) technique for considering interconnections among numerous criteria to collect the most effective variables (12 criteria) based on three pillars (3Ps) of SD. Likewise, the analytic network process (ANP) technique ranked these effective variables by considering their network relations based on three indicators. Lastly, integration was used to finalize and prioritize the most effective variables based on their weight from the ANP technique. This study will highlight the green economy with exclusive environmental issues and sustainable growth as the greatest effective variables among GE and SDGs criteria for SD implementation.


1994 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-267
Author(s):  
Victor Brunette

In Quebec, where the resource based industry has prevailed for many decades, a good portion of history is based on forestry and agriculture. Farmers and woodlot owners have been involved with primary products marketing structures for more than 25 years. Forest policy development for non industrial private forests has evolved in different ways in neighbouring provinces but intrinsic problems related to forest management, forest harvesting and products marketing are quite similar for all woodlot owners.The area under small private ownership in Québec covers only 9 per cent of the productive forest land. These woodlots nonetheless supply each year about 18 per cent of the timber needed by the wood using industry. The revenue of wood sales, the financial value of forest management, the upkeep of 10,000 jobs and the purchase of goods and services contribute 400 million dollars to the provincial economy. The annual harvest on private woodlots yields a final processed value of more than 1.5 billion dollars of forest products.Private woodlots are located along major waterways, in the southern part of the province, where growing conditions are the most suitable to forest crops. The woodlot sector benefits from the availability of a qualified and motivated labour force, from a well-developed road network and other infrastructures. Forest cover is 60 per cent hardwoods and 40 per cent softwoods. Only 24 per cent of the growing stock is spruce, fir, and jack pine, species which have traditionally been in strong demand for the pulp and paper industry. (FPBQ, 1989).There are inherent disadvantages to private forestry in Quebec such as the great dispersion of the individual woodlots and the small area of each woodlot (107 hectares for active pulpwood producers; 60 hectares per owner). The development of these forests must also overcome other disadvantages including the great number of owners (120,000) and the fact that many of these owners sometimes lack information and incentive.


2018 ◽  
Vol 79 (3) ◽  
pp. 211-227
Author(s):  
Adam Kaliszewski

Abstract The aim of the paper is to review and evaluate Polish programmes and strategies centred on and related to forest, as well as national and transregional development strategies and priorities formulated at the european level. this work covers the ‘National Forest Policy’ and 28 other strategies, policies and programmes representing various forest-related policy areas, including environmental protection, agriculture and rural development, climate and energy as well as development strategies from 1997 to 2017. The study shows that many of the priorities of the European forest policy have not been reflected in the ‘National Forest Policy’. These include, among others, adapting forests to climate change and enhancing their mitigation potential, enhancing the economic contribution of forestry to rural development, enhancing the role of the SFM in a green economy, securing the participation of all stakeholders in forest-related decision-making processes, improving communication in forestry and developing cross-sectoral cooperation. However, many of these forest-related issues have already been included in numerous strategic documents of other policy areas. As a result, many European forest policy priorities are scattered across Polish policy documents of different forest-related sectors and it raises justified concerns that inconsistencies and contradictions exist between them. Another matter of significant concern is that the issue of forests and forestry is barely mentioned in any of the examined development strategies. This may also indicate that the forest sector is getting more and more marginalized in the socioeconomic and political sector, as forest policy goals are defined and achieved within other policy areas and are practically absent in national and transregional development strategies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chia-Wen Lee ◽  
Ching Li ◽  
Sung-Ta Liu

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between service effectiveness of the Nature Centers of Forest Bauru of Executive Yuan in Taiwan (Nature Centers) and sustainability of environmental education and forest policy implications. The (n = 1520) participants were selected through purposive and quota sampling, and the questionnaires were divided into four categories: Potential target customer groups, potential operators, the public, and website users from 1 July to 31 August 2017. Canonical correlation analyses were used to explore the relationship between two variables. The study results revealed the significant relationships between service effectiveness and forest policy implications, and two canonical factors were extracted. The first pair of canonical correlation analyses reveals that higher overall service effectiveness is more likely to catch the attentions of participants with the overall forest policy implications. The second canonical correlation analysis suggests that forest policy implications factors of protected coast forest, exotic species, green economy, forest resource management, and wood self-sufficiency ratio were positively associated with service effectiveness for natural resources and negatively associated with those of teaching quality. The implication for further research and practical applications in terms of cultural and creative research is suggested.


Author(s):  
Irina P. Glazyrina ◽  
Irina A. Zabelina

The purpose of this work is to quantify the effectiveness of the environmental institutions in Russia from the perspective of the concepts of green economy and green growth. For these purposes we used the indicators of the environmental and economic dynamics, which can be considered as characteristics of the quality of growth from an environmental point of view: eco-intensity, representing direct quantitative characteristics of resource use or negative impact per unit of economic result, and decoupling coefficients. The authors adhere to the approach to the quantitative assessment of green growth, proposed by P. Victor in 2014. The proposed tools allow analyzing environmental and economic trends for individual regions, industries and types of negative anthropogenic impact. Based on the calculation results, it can be concluded that Russian environmental institutions are not a sufficiently fine instrument of regulation, as they do not fully take into account the regional characteristics and, in general, do not create sufficient incentives for greening the economy. The results of the work can be used both in theoretical studies of ecological and economic dynamics for individual countries and regions, and in practical development of programs for the development of territories


2018 ◽  
Vol 79 (4) ◽  
pp. 345-354
Author(s):  
Adam Kaliszewski

Abstract The aim of this paper was to review and analyse the main forest policy documents in terms of the priorities formulated at the European level for Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany (federal level) and Brandenburg (federal state level), as well as Finland. A total of 14 documents was covered in this research, including national forest programmes and forest strategies implemented in the period from 1997 to 2017. In all of the studied countries, forest policy documents were periodically revised and updated to account for changing political, economic, social and environmental conditions. As a result, at some point during the examined 20-year period, in each country the forestry priorities and goals were defined by a national forest programme. Furthermore, the vast majority of the priorities set by the European forest policy was reflected in the programmes and strategies of all the countries. Certain priorities concerning the illegal harvesting and trade of forest products, however, have not been included in the explored documents. Combating illegal harvesting of forest products and related trade is a corner stone of the EU FLEGT Action Plan and extends beyond forest policy issues of EU member states. The second corner stone is to ensure the contribution of the forest sector to a green economy, including a new concept of green economy, which still needs to be incorporated into national forest policies. Unlike Poland, in the studied countries the priorities of European forest policy have been included in single policy programmes or strategies, which define aims and goals, as well as means of their implementation in a comprehensive and coherent manner. This promotes strengthening the position of the forest sector within the national socio-economic system and supports active shaping of its relations to other sectors of the economy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (341) ◽  
pp. 53-65
Author(s):  
Jelena Nikolajenko-Skarbalė ◽  
Rasa Viederytė ◽  
Agnė Šneiderienė

Abstract Climate change and environmental deterioration have been recognized as global drivers of change, and the shift to the “greener” economy is the key to sustainable development. The green economy is a priority field for developing and developed economies. However, as the authors of the publication have realised, there is no consensus about the meaning of the green economy and “green” jobs, that is why an uncertainty as in measurement of economic trends and an impact of it, as well as in what skills and competencies should be assigned to the “green” ones, arises. The new “green” processes and technologies are arising in a progressive trend, that is why it is important to ensure there are properly skilled candidates with appropriate “green” skills and competencies on the labour market, as well as to prepare fresh graduates with the “green” skills that will meet requirement of both, the recent and the future companies, especially operating in the “green” sector. In the framework of “SB Bridge” project an online survey was conducted by interviewing the “green” companies to identify which skills and competencies are needed for “green” jobs recently, and whether candidates and fresh graduates are enough with the “green” skills and competencies for fruitful engagement to “green” jobs. As the survey identified, fresh graduates and candidates for “green” jobs lack technical and (or) mechanical knowledge, IT skills, as well as experience and ability to work independently and in the team to resolve arising problems.


2014 ◽  
Vol 165 (3) ◽  
pp. 61-67
Author(s):  
Kit Prins

Is consumption of forest products sustainable over the long term? The article presents trends and an outlook for the forest sector, for Europe and Switzerland, from 1913 to 2030. The first half of the twentieth century saw over-use of European forests, but in the second half, the situation changed: consumption of forest products increased, while forests expanded, growing stock rose and Europe became a net exporter of timber. Official scenarios foresee a continuation of these trends in the twenty-first century. Yet, to this end, the forest sector must stay competitive. For example, mobilising enough energy wood, on a sustainable basis, is a major challenge for the sector. The forest sector has demonstrated in the past its flexibility and adaptability, and so could be well placed to lead the way towards the green economy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 174 ◽  
pp. 04037
Author(s):  
Nina Gostieva ◽  
Elena Kazarinova ◽  
Ekaterina Samarina ◽  
Anna Balabanova

In the past two years, the idea of a green economy has been widely discussed by not only environmental experts, but also various economic researchers. It is increasingly mentioned by heads of state and finance ministers, as well as in joint statements by the G20 and discussed in the context of sustainable development and fight against environmental damage. The current increase in relevance of the green economy concept is undoubtedly fueled by growing disappointment in the most widespread economic model, as well as the feeling of fatigue generated by the many crises and environmental failures that have been observed during the first two decades of the new century. The transition to a green economy has a solid economic and social justification. Convincing arguments are emerging in favor of doubling the efforts of both the state and the private sector towards to green economy transformation. In this regard, the state is faced with the task of leveling the rules for green products by refusing to provide obsolete subsidies, reforming policies and creating new incentives, strengthening ecological infrastructure and economic mechanisms, redirecting public investment and moving to green public procurement.


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