ARE WOODLAND KEY HABITATS HOTSPOTS IN BOREAL FORESTS? Systematic Review Protocol

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Fennoscandia
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.368.7658; http://www.environmentalevidence.org/Documents/Final_protocols/Protocol81.pdf

Forests in the Fennoscandia and Baltic countries have a long history of human utilization. From the beginning of the 20 th century forest harvesting methods shifted from selection felling towards clear cutting. Modern, highly mechanised forestry with clear cutting, intensive silviculture, thinning of regenerating stands and short rotation times, has been employed in Fennoscandia since 1950s and in the Baltic countries since 1990s. Because in Fennoscandia and Baltic countries the majority of the forests are commercially managed conservation of biodiversity critically depends on management actions that take place in the production forests, i.e. in areas outside forest reserves. Hence, the focus of conservation has shifted towards multiscale conservation measures (Lindenmayer and Franklin, 2002). In addition to large ecological reserves, intermediate- and small- spatial scale conservation measures, such as biological hotspots and green tree retention, respectively, are taken place in the matrix. One tool for intermediate-spatial scale conservation of the forest biodiversity is the conservation of small habitat patches called Woodland Key Habitats (WKHs). The