Landscape planning of forests

Background
Forestry in Sweden is normally managed within small land units and by many private actors. Legal requirements on both nature conservation and forest management are to a great extent imposing general requirements to be applied by each actor, within the units. However, both effective nature conservation and effective forest production – not least to provide biomass for energy – necessitate broader geographical considerations.

Aims
The objective of this project is to discuss if a system of landscape planning of forests, could overcome the present fragmentation related to privately owned land units. Besides more effective conservation of habitats, an important objective in the planning would be to identify areas that lack essential conservation values and where intensive forest production may be allowed, exempted from certain present legal restrictions related to e.g. nature conservation, fertilizing and choice of tree plants. Landscape forest planning would then function as a climate change policy instrument.

Approaches
A legal task is to examine forest landscape planning conducted in other states, e.g. France and USA, and to construct an ideal Swedish landscape planning system. An important task is also to identify possible conflicts with existing legislation, as regards e.g. the protection of ownership rights, and to suggest new rules for solving the conflicts. The project is multidisciplinary, including ecological, legal and economic expertise.

Keywords
landscape planning, forestry, biomass, environmental law

Research Group

Project leader
Professor Gabriel Michanek, Faculty of Law, Uppsala University.

Additional funding (apart from StandUp for Energy)

Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.