Arrow IFPA Series: Note 4 of 8: Sustainable forest management basecase analysis: The Lemon Landscape Unit pilot project

Abstract

This extension note is the fourth in a series of eight that describes a set of tools and processes developed to support sustainable forest management planning and its pilot application in the Arrow Timber Supply Area (TSA). It describes a pilot project designed to evaluate the use of criteria and indicators in developing a sustainable forest management (SFM) basecase and to provide decision support for managers in creating SFM plans. This note outlines how indicators can be used to define management objectives, planning units, and harvesting constraints or “initial thresholds,”and how the resulting SFM basecase was evaluated in trade-off and sensitivity analyses. The process revealed some priority issues in which management objectives for some indicators had significant effects on a measure for the timber criterion (harvest volume) and others had minimal effect. Although the SFM basecase was intended to emphasize non-timber criteria, it nonetheless yielded a greater short- and long-term timber supply than a scenario based on Forest Practice Code rules. This note provides an example of the first iteration of a decision-support process requiring the participation of decision makers and allowing public feedback. Initial results suggest that this decision-support approach has merit and could form an important part of an SFM framework based on criteria and indicators.