Impact of Forest Management on Species Richness: Global Meta-Analysis and Economic Trade-offs

Background

This study is a meta-analysis of data from forests managed for timber harvest to assess the conservation value of these forests. From processing data from 287 published studies they rank the following forest management systems from best to worst in terms of conservation value: selection and retention systems, reduced impact logging, conventional selective logging, clear-cutting, agroforestry, timber plantations, fuelwood plantations. They also conducted analysis of net present value in these same systems and found unsurprisingly that the ranking for net present value was different.

Conclusions & Takeaways

The study found that forest management types can be ranked by local species richness loss, with selection and retention systems ranking as the best and timber and fuelwood plantations ranking as worst. The authors also considered how much biodiversity was lost by the amount of profit gained they also found a very different ranking order. Based on the findings, they recommend managers to be cognizant of what you are managing for and choose a management system that fits your goals, and that production forests still have conservation value.