Practical steps to protect biodiversity
Specific steps taken in the forest to support biodiversity include:
- Setting controlled fires, particularly in areas that would have regularly succumbed to forest fires long before human beings became involved
- Leaving untouched conservation areas and border zones along waterways, marshes and rocky outcrops
- Leaving ‘contiguous landscapes’ that form corridors between any areas affected by felling and allowing various species of insects and animals to move easily to new habitats
- Creating high ‘shelter wood’ where half of the older trees are left as protection for new plants coming through
- Allowing the natural decay process to occur in certain areas by leaving dead wood in the forest
- Letting nature take care of the species and growth patterns of certain areas
- Leaving ‘high stumps’ as a habitat for lichens or insects or a perch where birds such as owls can hunt the voles that can damage the young saplings in the winter
- Experimenting with protective agents that resist pine weevil attacks, but which do not contain pesticides
- Using technological advances that improve the performance of machines used within the forest, as well as location technologies such as GPS that help foresters manage their ‘site-adapted forestry’ techniques with far greater precision
“Today, when we look at the planning process for cutting the timber, we look at all the environmental aspects of the geographical area at the same time.
That means that even before we work out exactly which route we will take into the forest, we are already looking at the ecological conditions in that area – which areas could be considered for conservation, which areas we might consider leaving altogether or even whether we might decide it’s appropriate to burn certain areas.”
Uno Brinnen, Vice-President of Korsnäs and member of the ACE Board of Directors.