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Abstract

In 1998, the Swedish standard for forest certification according to FSC's principles and criteria
was approved (Anon. 1998). During a short period following this approval, all major forest
companies in Sweden adopted the standard and modified their management practices. The overall
aim of the standard is to outline management principles that maintain the ecosystem productivity
and biodiversity, secure local people's livelihood, and promote long-term valuable wood­
production. In particular, the standard comprises many detailed regulations regarding how forests
should be managed. For example, 5 percent of forest areas should be set aside for free development
or be managed to promote biological values, certain areas must be managed to promote deciduous
forests, boundary zones to streams, lakes, and non-productive land should be left, as should also a
certain minimum number of trees (10 ha-1) during harvesting operations (Anon. 1998).
Compared to management practices of most companies before adoption of the FSC standard, the
new management regimes imply lower levels of potential harvests. Some analyses have been made
to quantify the effects on the harvesting levels of the new management (e.g., Lundstrom et al.
1997, Anon. 2000). In these studies, the range of harvesting reduction due to the FSC standard has
been found to be in the order 10 to 20 percent. Similar results are presented by V erkaik and
Nabuurs (2000) in a study of the consequences of adopting "nature-orientated" management in
Scandinavian forests. It should be noted that in the latter study no attempts were made to follow the
FSC standard specifically.
The long-term sustainable harvesting levels in Sweden, before the adoption of the FSC criteria,
have been assessed to be slightly more than 100 mill. m3 per year (Anon. 2000). The annual cutting
levels during the last decade have been about 70-75 mill. m3 per year. There are several reasons for
the relatively large difference between the two figures. Firstly, many forests in Sweden are still
comparably young, and thus not mature for final felling. Secondly, we are here dealing with
different concepts. The level around 100 mill. m3 is what, from a biological point of view, would
be possible to sustainably take out from the forests -it is reflecting a potential. In this calculation
no considerations to restrictions of technical, social or economic kind are taken. The factual figure
of 70-75 mill. m3 is reflecting the real supply of wood, given the economic setting and restrictions
on forestry of different kinds.
In most of the above studies of the effect of FSC'
s standard on the harvesting levels, the modelling
approach has been to let the management activities be controlled by a set of rules formulated to
mimic certain forest management practices. These rules are followed, even if a deeper analysis
(which is typically not made) for some forestry activities would imply negative results from an
economical point of view. Together this implies that these studies are dealing with the "potential"
discussed above.
A different approach is to put forestry into an economical framework, letting the activities largely
be controlled by economical considerations. The result of such an analysis most likely would be a
different round-wood supply, leading to lower harvesting levels as compared to the levels that
correspond to the biological potential. It can be argued that this kind of analysis in a better way
would be able to assess the actual consequences on the harvesting levels of new demands on
forestry, e.g. those caused by FSC certification.
The objective of this study was to analyse the implications of the FSC standard on the supply of
round-wood in Sweden. This is done with respect to both the effects on current supply
relationships and the long-term harvest level. Two different assumptions about the rigor of the
FSC-standard are analysed. These two scenarios are contrasted to a modified version of the
environmental restrictions of the recent SKA study (Anon. 2000) which is used as a baseline case.
The constraints are less restrictive than in the SKA study and are intended to reflect forest
management under the current Forestry Act, though with no adherence to the particular stipulations
of the FSC standard. Furthermore, an extreme case with no environmental considerations is
included in order to assess the maximum economic potential.
The different levels of environmental objectives form the basis for four scenarios. The scenarios
differ with respect to the amount area that can be used for production and how much is allocated
for modified management and into reserves. Except for the distribution of the forest area on
permissible management, the economic and other conditions remain the same. The analysis was
performed with a method for modelling the forest and the forest manager decisions developed by
SaUnas and Eriksson (1989). The method derives economically optimal harvesting regimes for all
types of forests given certain assumptions regarding prices and costs.

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• Wood supply from Swedish forests managed according to the FSC-standard. (deposited 25 May 2012 06:35) [Currently Displayed]