Potential of continuous cover forestry on drained peatlands to increase the carbon sink in Finland.

Land-based mitigation measures are needed to achieve climate targets. One option is the mitigation of currently high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of nutrient-rich drained peatland forest soils. Continuous cover forestry (CCF) has been proposed as a measure to manage this GHG emission source; however, its emission reduction potential and impact on timber production at regional and national scales have not been quantified.

Is enhanced biodiversity protection conflicting with ambitious bioenergy targets in eastern Finland?

The study describes how qualitative stakeholder feedback can be used in quantitative scenarios to simulate forest resource use under alternative management objectives. In earlier studies in the region of eastern Finland, stakeholders did not see a possible conflict between increased bioenergy use and nature conservation; this finding is contrary to the results of other studies. The aim of this study was to test with a quantitative modelling approach whether the stakeholder expectation holds and whether forest management in eastern Finland can simultaneously increase biomass utilization and biodiversity protection.

Stakeholder engagement in scenario development process - bioenergy production and biodiversity conservation in eastern Finland.

In this study participatory approaches were used to develop alternative forest resource management scenarios with particular respect to the effects on increased use of forest bioenergy and its effect on biodiversity in Eastern Finland. As technical planning tools, we utilized a forest management planning system (MELA) and the Tool for Sustainability Impact Assessment (ToSIA) to visualize the impacts of the scenarios. We organized a stakeholder workshop where group discussions were used as a participatory method to get the stakeholder preferences and insights concerning forest resource use in the year 2030.