TY - JOUR

T1 - The priorities in managing forest disturbances to enhance forest resilience

T2 - A comparison of a literature analysis and perceptions of forest professionals

AU - Nikinmaa, Laura

AU - de Koning, Johannes H.C.

AU - Derks, Jakob

AU - Grabska-Szwagrzyk, Eva

AU - Konczal, Agata

AU - Lindner, Marcus

AU - Socha, Jarosław

AU - Muys, Bart

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - Climate change alters the operational environment of forest management. The need to increase forest resilience and manage forests based on the best available knowledge is urgent. However, it is unclear to what extent scientific knowledge is integrated into practical forest management guidance. To explore how the integration of research works in forest management guidance, we reviewed literature on the effects of forest management measures on disturbance impacts and conducted two rounds of semi-structured interviews. First, we interviewed forest professionals from nine European countries on what they perceive to be the best forest management measures to increase resilience to forest disturbances. Second, we interviewed forest professionals responsible for developing and adapting forest management guidelines in five European countries on the barriers they perceive in integrating research into practice. Both literature review results and interviews were analysed inductively with MAXQDA software coding. We found a discrepancy between forest management measures frequently addressed in scientific literature and those favored by forest professionals. Some measures that forest managers broadly perceive as important for increasing resilience to disturbances are scarcely studied, indicating that the science-practice interphase could benefit from more application relevant research. The lack of relevant information that could facilitate the practical application of measures and the lack of professional capacity were seen by forest professionals to be the main barriers in integrating research findings into forest management. The results showed that there is a need to support the integration of research findings into practice by increasing the capacities for providing forest management guidance.

AB - Climate change alters the operational environment of forest management. The need to increase forest resilience and manage forests based on the best available knowledge is urgent. However, it is unclear to what extent scientific knowledge is integrated into practical forest management guidance. To explore how the integration of research works in forest management guidance, we reviewed literature on the effects of forest management measures on disturbance impacts and conducted two rounds of semi-structured interviews. First, we interviewed forest professionals from nine European countries on what they perceive to be the best forest management measures to increase resilience to forest disturbances. Second, we interviewed forest professionals responsible for developing and adapting forest management guidelines in five European countries on the barriers they perceive in integrating research into practice. Both literature review results and interviews were analysed inductively with MAXQDA software coding. We found a discrepancy between forest management measures frequently addressed in scientific literature and those favored by forest professionals. Some measures that forest managers broadly perceive as important for increasing resilience to disturbances are scarcely studied, indicating that the science-practice interphase could benefit from more application relevant research. The lack of relevant information that could facilitate the practical application of measures and the lack of professional capacity were seen by forest professionals to be the main barriers in integrating research findings into forest management. The results showed that there is a need to support the integration of research findings into practice by increasing the capacities for providing forest management guidance.

U2 - 10.1016/j.forpol.2023.103119

DO - 10.1016/j.forpol.2023.103119

M3 - Journal article

VL - 158

JO - Forest Policy and Economics

JF - Forest Policy and Economics

SN - 1389-9341

M1 - 103119

ER -