Intensive forest management — does it pay off financially on drained peatlands?

Abstract

There are only a few studies focusing on the financial aspects of management regimes on peatland forests and even fewer studies investigating intensive management. Such studies, however, are urgently needed, particularly in Finland, where a considerable proportion of drained peatlands is reaching a phase requiring active management. An empirical data set derived from the 10th National Forest Inventory (NFI10) is applied for stand-level simulations (MOTTI stand simulator) until final cut. The data are a representative sample of the most common drained peatland site types and their current stand structures in Finland. Based on several different initial stand conditions, tree growth was projected according to four management regimes: (1) passive management (only one clearcut executed), (2) management according to prevailing silvicultural recommendations, (3) stand-level optimum without ditch network maintenance (DNM) and fertilization (FERT), and (4) stand-level optimum with DNM and FERT (intensive management). The intensive management regime financially outperformed the other management options distinctively, regardless of the climatic region, peatland site type, and initial stand structure. However, towards more harsh climatic conditions and a more barren site type, the financial difference between management options flattened out, and silvicultural recommendations even resulted in a higher mean annual increment (MAI) compared with intensive management.