How to boost biomass production for bio-economy

© Natural Resources Institute Finland© Natural Resources Institute Finland

Jari HynynenReserach ProfessorLuke

How to boost biomass

production for bio-economy

Jari Hynynen/Brussels 27.9.2016

© Natural Resources Institute Finland

Background


Proportion of forest from total land area in Europe



Science supports planning and decision making

• Forest resources

– Finland and Sweden are pioneers in the field of National ForestInventory

– Scientific knowledge on the the amount and structure of forestresources is available since 1920’s

– Reliable and high-resolution data on current forest resources

• Forest management know-how based on long-term fieldexperiments for forest management

• Regeneration, site preparation, thinnings, fertilization, etc.

• Advanced desicion support tools for forest management purposes

– Finland and Sweden are in the forefront in forest modelling, simulation and decision support systems

• HEUREKA in Sweden

• MOTTI & MELA in Finland



Forest management in Finland

• Forest management aims at combined production of saw

timber and pulpwood (& energy wood)

– 70 % of revenues of forest owners comes from selling saw

timber

• Desired timber properties typically require a long time to

develop

• Major challenge is to find management schedule resulting

high quality raw material production in a cost-efficient manner

– to grow high-quality raw material as quick as possible

– with reasonable investments

– minimizing the risks

– meeting the goals of multifunctional and sustainable use of forest resources



Realized boost


Growing stock volume of Finnish forests since 1920s

Finnish statistical yearbook of Forestry 2014Jari Hynynen/Brussels 27.9.2016


Annual increment and drain

Finnish statistical yearbook of Forestry 2014



Change of mean annual growth by forest age classes

• Similar pattern in Scots pine dominated stands

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

1-20 21-40 41-60 61-80 81-100 101-120 121-140 141-160 160+

m3/h

a/v

Age class

Norway spruce dominated stands, Southern Finland

VMI11

VMI6



Reasons for increased growth rate of Finnishforests from1971 to 2010

• Observed growth in early 1970’s: 57.4 mill. m3 year-1

• Observed growth in 2009-2011: 104.4 mill. m3 year-1

⇒Increase in growth in 40 years: 81 %

• 63 % of increased growth rate is due to forestmanagement 1)

• 37 % of growth changes is environment-induced 1)

1) Source: Henttonen,H.H., Nöjd, P. & Mäkinen, H. 2016. Environment-induced growth changes in the Finnish forests during 1971 – 2010 – an analysis based on National Forest Inventory. For. Ecol. Manage. (submitted)



Management measures to boost biomass production


Regeneration

Pre-commercialthinning

1st commercialthinning

later commercialthinnings

Regenerationcutting

A typical forest management schedule



large-sized

timber of

a high quality!

Thinnings

provide



Measures for boosting forest growth and yield

Forest fertilization

– Up tp 40% growth increaseduring 10 years1)

– Ash can be used as fertilizer

Use of improved regeneration material

– Genetig gain of Scots pine: 15 to 30% in stem volume growth

=>Shortening of rotation: 10 to15 years2)

In the short-term In the long-term

1) Kukkola, M., Saramäki, J. 1983. Growth response in repeatedly fertilized pine and spruce stands on mineral soils. Commun. Inst. For. Fenn. 114:1-55.

2) Haapanen, M., et al. 2016. Realized and projected gains in growth, quality and simulated yield of genetically improved Scots pine in southern Finland. Eur J Forest Res DOI 10.1007/s10342-016-0989-0



Future scenarios


Scenarios for alternative management and

utilization of Finnish forest resources 1)

Business as usual (BAU)

• Intensity of forest management at current level

– silvicultural practices are completed on 54 % of

forest area recommended to be managed

– annual cuttings are 78 % of sustainable allowable cut

Intensive production of high quality raw material (QLTY)

• Intensified management practices are widely applied

– intensive regeneration and young stand

management using improved regeneration material

– Intensive pre-commercial and thinning schedule

– wood quality are emphasized in management

Assumptions

• Protected forest area remains at the current level

• Sustainability of wood production: Volume of the growing

stock does not decrease

1) Reference: Hynynen, J., Salminen, H., Ahtikoski, A., Huuskonen, S., Ojansuu, R., Siipilehto, J., Lehtonen, M., & Eerikäinen, K. 2015. Long-term impacts of forest managementon biomass supply and forest resource development: a scenario analysis for Finland.European Journal of Forest Research 134:415–431. DOI 10.1007/s10342-014-0860-0



Harvesting removals

• Intensive management allows increment of annual removals by over 40 % (84 mill m3)

• Increase of removals is possible without decreasing the volume of growing stock or carbon sequestration

• For forest owner, intensive management improves the profitability despite the increased investments in silviculture

Mean annual removals 2010 - 2110

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

BAU QLTY Removals 2001 - 2010

energy wood

Pulp wood

saw timber

mill. m3



Take home message


Intensive management and

multiple use of forests

• There is potential for significant increase of biomassproduction in a sustainable manner

• Intensive management enables us to to produce morebiomass on a given forest area or produce currentamount of biomass on a smaller forest area

• Forest management improves the resilience of forestsagainst environmental changes by

– adapting silviculture which increases the forest vitality

– minimizing the disturbances caused by forest operation

(e.g. logging damages)

• Production can be increased without lowering current

stocking level



THANK YOU!
