Continuous Cover Forestry in Boreal Nordic Countries

Pasi Rautio currently works as a research professor in silviculture at Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke). His expertise is in silviculture as well as in forest and environmental ecology. His roles involve forest monitoring and studies on forest regeneration and forest management methods in areas that are facing pressures of other land uses, such as tourism, recreation and reindeer herding. Pasi is the coordinator for ArcticHubs, a H2020 project investigating solutions to Arctic land use conflicts and long-term sustainability of the region. His previous work at the University of Oulu in Finland and Stockholm University in Sweden has concerned issues like biodiversity and restoration of seminatural pastures; evolutionary ecology of plant-animal interactions and air pollution effects on forest ecosystems. He also worked as a forest policy officer in the European Commission (DG Environment). He is a member of UNECE Team of Specialists on Boreal Forests and Programme Co-ordinating Group of UNECE ICP Forests.

Johanna Routa works as a research manager in Profitable and responsible primary production research programme at Luke. She is a docent of Sustainable forest biomass production and quality management at the University of Eastern Finland. Her expertise is in sustainable forest biomass production, biomass supply chains, costs of different management practices and the quality management of forest biomass. She has experience in research leadership and bioenergy R&D with companies and other stakeholders. Johanna is the coordinator of H2020 project BRANCHES (Boosting Rural bioeconomy Networks following multi-actors approaches) which aims to increase the implementation of new technologies in bioeconomy. She is member of the IEA bioenergy group. 

Dr. Saija Huuskonen is a senior scientist at Luke and a docent of silviculture at the University of Helsinki. Her core expertise lies in forest management and silvicultural practices, focusing on their impact on wood production and sustainable forest use. She is involved in the developing the forest management decision support system, Motti. Saija leads mixed forests projects, which evaluate mixed forests from various perspectives, including ecosystem services, forest management, forest resources, risk management, and growth dynamics. She also established new long-term mixed forest field experiments to create new research infrastructure. She is a member of national forest management committees and deputy coordinator at IUFRO 1.01.01 Boreal Forest Silviculture and Management division. Dr. Huuskonen has contributed to dissemination efforts through peer-reviewed articles, textbooks, reports, and speaking engagements. Her diverse knowledge and experience in silviculture in the Nordic boreal region spans research, teaching, and practical applications.

Emma Holmström is an associate professor in silviculture at SLU. Her research spans over forest management for production, forest conservation and multiuse purposes. She studies forest experiments and monitoring data from the Swedish national forest inventory, aiming for results useful for both the applied forestry and the theoretical framework of modelling growth and yield. She has a special interest in silviculture of mixed forest and of the broadleaved tree species in northern Europe. In recent year she has established several long-term experiments and projects investigating how climate change induced droughts might be mitigated by forest management in pine and spruce. Emma is the coordinator of the interdisciplinary platform Future Forests since 2021, which is a research infrastructure used for developing knowledge on CCF both in past program periods and in the current.

Jonas Cedergren is a research officer working for the Swedish Forest Research Institu

Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. Definitions and Terminology: What Is Continuous Cover Forestry in Fennoscandia?.- Chapter 3. Regeneration.- Chapter 4. Growth and Yield.- Chapter 5. Forest Planning and Continuous Cover Forestry.- Chapter 6. Harvesting of Continuous Cover Forests.- Chapter 7. Genetic Effects.- Chapter 8. Financial Performance.- Chapter 9. Wood Properties and Quality.- Chapter 10. Multiple Use of Forests.- Chapter 11. Biodiversity.- Chapter 12. Forest Damage.- Chapter 13. Carbon Exchange, Storage and Sequestration.- Chapter 14. Can Continuous Cover Forestry Have Less Effect on Water Quality Than Conventional Forest Management?.- Chapter 15. How Forest Owners and Forestry Stakeholders Perceive Continuous Cover Forestry.