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Copyright of Forestry Studies / Metsanduslikud Uurimused is the property of Sciendo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Forestry Studies / Metsanduslikud Uurimused is the property of Sciendo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Forestry Studies / Metsanduslikud Uurimused is the property of Sciendo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Forestry Studies / Metsanduslikud Uurimused is the property of Sciendo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper deals with a quantitative assessment of the production efficiency of the forestry sector in EU countries, which is largely neglected in the literature. Only a few studies have been conducted so far, processing data mainly in the first half of the last decade. In contrast to these studies, in this article we focus on the period between 2016 and 2020. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to compare the efficiency of the forest sector to fill the gap. The empirical results of this study show that the leaders in this sector are Germany, Finland, and the Czech Republic. These countries are fully efficient throughout the period under review. In contrast, Bulgaria lags far behind, with an efficiency score typically around 35%. The results of the cluster analysis show that although countries have similar characteristics, their efficiency scores are not necessarily at the same level.

Copyright of Forestry Studies / Metsanduslikud Uurimused is the property of Sciendo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper aimed to study the distribution of the main tree species in the Republic of Bashkortostan (RB) in a transforming climate and compare the results for the last decades. The analysis was based on the forest fund data, forest management documents, route surveys and field studies, and conducted by generally established forestry methods. The trial plots had identical soil conditions. The paper considers the impact of climate on the forest resources of the RB located at the junction of the Urals with the West Siberian Lowland, the Cis-Ural plain and steppe belt with diverse vegetation. The floristic composition of the republic is varied and includes about 1700 species of higher plants. Comprehensive research was followed by field results comparison. In 1998–2018, the area of soft-leaved species, primarily Betula pendula Roth and Tilia cordata Mill. increased by 70.8 (39%) and 74.2 thousand hectares (32%), respectively; the share of coniferous Picea and Abies declined by 57.9 thousand hectares – 15%, short-trunk Quercus robur L. lowered by 34% and the high-trunk one decreased by 6% and Acer by 8%. The conducted study suggests a significant increase in destructive insects. Spruce forests will suffer, because there is a reduction in the area by 20% over 20 years. Thus, there has been a gradual displacement of forest species. Forestry challenges and the sustainable ecological balance both in the republic and the planet as a whole require further joint efforts of scientific and environmental organisations and authorities for forecasting transformational processes and developing measures to address them.

Since 1999, Estonia has conducted the National Forest Inventory (NFI) on the basis of sample plots. This paper presents a new module, incorporating remote-sensing feature variables from airborne laser scanning (ALS) and from multispectral satellite images, for the construction of maps of forest height, standing-wood volume, and tree species composition for the entire country. The models for sparse ALS point clouds yield coefficients of determination of 89.5–94.8% for stand height and 84.2–91.7% for wood volume. For the tree species prediction, the models yield Cohen's kappa values (taking 95% confidence intervals) of 0.69–0.72 upon comparing model results against a previous map, and values of 0.51–0.54 upon comparing model results against NFI sample plots. This paper additionally examines the influence of foliage phenology on the predictions and discusses options for further enhancement of the system.

The results of scientific studies dealing with the influence of forest management on carbon dynamics are often controversial. Substituting fossil fuels with wood is not always a climate-friendly solution, and besides, it has often a negative impact on biodiversity. The current paper reviews the literature about the influence of different forest management and timber use options on climate change and brings out the accompanying consequences on biodiversity in temperate and boreal climate zones. The forest's ability to sequestrate and store carbon can be enlarged by appropriate forest management planning and practices. Generally, for mitigation of climate change, the moderate (not intensive) forest management is most favourable, but intensification of management enhances global warming, since forest carbon storage in tree biomass and soil decreases. The mitigation of climate change is just one of the many roles of forest, and climate policy actions cannot come at the expense of species diversity. The complex studies dealing with several forest goals conclude that high carbon store and biodiversity protection do not contradict each other, but the achievement of maximum economic profit at the same time is not possible. The mitigation of climate change and wildlife protection is most effective when it is first of all the forests with a high biodiversity that are managed less intensively. Concerning climate change, the most negative forest biomass use is wood combustion. It is reasonable to burn only such biomass (cut and industrial residues) which cannot be used for producing goods holding carbon for a long time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on a data set of more than 90 years of experience in cultivation of tree and shrub species of Far-Eastern origin at Järvselja Training and Experimental Forest District. The aim of the paper was to estimate the growth and yield of different tree and shrub species in Eastern Estonia. For this purpose, the height and breast height diameter of trees were measured and their cold hardiness estimated in summer 2019. Our study showed that many tree and shrub species of Far-Eastern origin grow quite well in the conditions prevalent in Eastern Estonia. These introduced species have importance mainly in park management.

This paper explores the history of age detection of trees, especially the age history of oak trees, throughout two centuries in Estonia. It was already in the beginning of the 19th century when relations between the size and age of oaks in northern Latvia (previous Livonian province) were described. The paper explains how the species concept of Quercus robur developed over time in the past and points out discussions on the existence of two varieties Q. robur L. var. tardiflora Czern and Q. robur L. var. praecox Czern. It also states that thanks to the use of the increment borer, the first dendrochronological studies were carried out in Estonia in the 1920s. Dendrochronological research in the Soviet Union began in the 1950s with Lithuania being the leading country in the field headed by Teodaras Bitvinskas. In Estonia, research was continued in the 1960s until now. The paper takes a look at the life of Mart Rohtla who introduced the method of determining tree age according to tree bark, presents his standpoints on oaks and critically assesses these. A comparative assessment is given on the ages of oak and lime trees found according to the tree-ring method and bark increment method. The great ages of the oaks and limes found by applying the bark increments method are doubted and considered unreliable. However, the age of the surface layers of the bark of oaks and limes needs clarification in the future.

There are no systematic approaches available in current specialist literature when it comes to the optimization of the process of drying out hardwood species of wood, such as birch, aspen, or black alder, all of which find industrial uses in Estonia. In order to investigate the drying of these three hardwood species, this paper has made use of an experimental and theoretical drying optimization methodology which was developed previously for pine sapwood within the framework of the EIC Grant No. 16200 project. The same methodology was used to determine the critical diffusion coefficient and corresponding critical relative humidity levels (RH) in relation to the surrounding air, with those levels being important from the point of view of drying optimization, and calculating those levels separately for each species of hardwood. For alder it was found that the critical diffusion coefficient is Dcr = 36.57 * (10−4 mm2 s−1), while for aspen the figure was Dcr = 30.71 * (10−4 mm2 s−1), and for birch it was Dcr = 16.35 * (10−4 mm2 s−1). It was found that the time dependencies for the total deformation of different tree species tend to differ considerably, although the same drying regime was used for all of those tree species which were incorporated into the experiments.

The aim of this paper was to provide an overview of the productivity of the stump lifting device Pallari KH-160, the distribution of working time, and to assess the dependence of the time and productivity of lifting operations on stump diameter in four different sample areas. Viru and Orguse sample areas were located in the Hepatica site type, Elva sample area in the Oxalis site type, and Rõuge test area in the Myrtillus site type. Viru sample area had smaller stumps compared to the others and had more stumps affected by decay. The highest productivity in terms of dry mass or volume was observed in stump lifting in Rõuge sample area, where 9.8 t of stumps were lifted per hour based on dry mass. The productivity of Viru and Orguse sample areas was lower, but these sample areas are located in the Hepatica site type, characterized by limestone substrates and leached soils. In contrast, Elva and Rõuge test areas are in the Oxalis and Myrtillus site types, respectively, with soils that are predominantly sandy. As the diameter of the stumps increased, the time required per stump increased, but the lifting speed per unit mass also increased. In other words, the productivity of lifting in stands with larger stumps is higher than in stands with smaller stumps. For example, the average productivity of lifting 10 cm diameter stumps is 0.8 t/h, for 20 cm stumps it is 2.2 t/h, and for 60 cm stumps it is 11.8 t/h.

Complex mixtures of substances are in the atmosphere and they can cause diseases in humans and biological communities after acute or chronic exposition. This paper focuses on the physical measurement of particulate matter, a proxy for air pollution, and a biological method for mutation assessment due to plants’ exposure to air pollution. The objective of this research was to characterize the air pollution seasonality in municipalities in southern Brazil, and also to understand the relation between air pollution and the biological response of the Tradescantia sp. clone 4430. The optical sensor SDS011 was used for measurements of particulate matter (PM) and the Trad-SHM bioassay was chosen to quantify the mutagenic alterations that occurred in stamen hairs during the study period, with PM data being measured every 5 seconds and the flowers being harvested approximately every two weeks for laboratory analysis. The Pearson test was applied to verify the correlation between PM and mutations in stamen hair as a result of which it was observed that there is a positive correlation between these data, with the highest value found being r = 0.61. Also, the period with the highest occurrence of pink cells was between autumn and spring, the same period in which an unusual increase in PM concentrations was also observed, a period that corresponds to a less favorable dispersion of pollutants in the atmosphere. The use of Tradescantia sp. clone 4430 showed sensitivity to the environments in which it was exposed. Biomonitoring is an important tool for understanding the effects of pollutants on the ecosystem.

Forest certifications aim to promote sustainable forest management through the certification of forest products derived from forests managed according to a set of guidelines. However, managing a forest following the sustainability benchmarks indicated by the different certification systems has a higher cost than non-certified forests. This cost difference is therefore reflected in products made from these certified forests. An Environmentally Certified Timber Product (ECTP), in fact, should be more expensive than its identical competitor made from non-certified wood because of its higher management and chain of custody costs. The purpose of this review is to highlight how, over the past decade (2010–2020), customer willingness to pay (WTP) for ECTPs has been estimated and what parameters lead consumers to choose ECTPs. Results revealed several methodologies for estimating WTP, the main one being Contingent Valuation, although Discrete Choice Experiments would seem to be more effective. In monetary terms, the average WTP obtained ranges from 17% for products with a higher base price, such as furniture, up to 68% for those with a lower price, such as paper. Finally, several parameters drive consumers to choose ECTPs, such as socio-demographic factors, prior knowledge of brands and labels, and choice of product attributes.

This paper provides an overview of a small research project. The object of the research was a 16 km2 forested area located in the territory of Järvselja Study and Experimental Forest, Estonia, which was damaged by storms in June 2021. The aim of the study was to investigate whether it is possible and reasonable to estimate the area of storm damage using orthophotos created from photographs collected from unmanned aircraft. The surveying was carried out on July 13–15, 2021. The data was collected via unmanned aerial vehicles with RGB-cameras on board. A multi-rotor drone DJI Phantom 3 Professional and a fixed-wing unmanned aircraft eBee X were used. In total, the eBee drone was flown 11 times to obtain 11,989 photos and the DJI drone 18 times to obtain 2,471 photos. During the project, it became clear that if there are open fields available, it is more efficient to use a fixed-wing type drone for this kind of research. However, in more difficult conditions where there are no clearances suitable for take-off and landing, a multi-rotor drone, such as the DJI, can be used instead. It can be concluded from the results of the work that although it is possible to use an unmanned aircraft for aerial photography of large forested areas, it takes a considerable amount of time for both photography and post-processing. It took 96 man-hours to collect the data and four working weeks to process the data.

As the focus in forestry is moving from timber production to prioritized economic benefits and better integration of ecological-social functions, practical forest management is shifting towards promoting diverse stand structures. Promoting stand structural heterogeneity requires accurate and profound evaluations of spatial stand structure that are generally not provided during conventional forest inventories. In this paper, different indices describing the heterogeneity of the stand and the spatial arrangement of trees, including their size, condition and species were assessed. Indices were applied to the inventory data collected from the Estonian Network of Forest Research Plots. The results show that the studied structural indices are useful in assessment of Estonian forest stands. The practical importance of structural indices will increase in future as there will be a need for methods for characterizing forest stand structural diversity at a large scale, for example, derived from high-resolution remote sensing data.

In this paper we carried out a comparative analysis of three alliances, namely Quercion petraea, Betonico-Quercion and Lathyro-Quercion, which span Central and Eastern European thermophilous oak forests. The main goal was to find out floristic and ecological differences as well as to assess specificities in the phytosociological and layer structure across the syntaxa in different regions of Europe. Cluster analysis was performed based on the Bray-Curtis distance matrix and the flexible beta algorithm. A phytoindication method was applied to determine ecological relationships. Variability in the phytosociological structure was studied by shares of species of different classes of vegetation. The layer structure features were investigated by comparing species with the highest constancy value within each layer. Analysis of the distribution boundaries of differentiating species allowed the geographical boundaries of the three identified syntaxa clusters to be delineated. In the phytosociological structure, the greatest differences were found in the proportion of species of Quercetea pubescentis and Brachypodio-Betuletea classes. The Central and Eastern European syntaxa groups were shown to be significantly different in the constancy-ranked series of major layer-forming species.

Copyright of Forestry Studies / Metsanduslikud Uurimused is the property of Sciendo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper discloses algorithms for calculating the volume and lateral area of a stem or part of the stem (assortment) using the integral of the Ozolinš’ stem taper curve. An algorithm was also developed to change the taper curve constants in case another diameter was measured higher than the breast height. The experiment was performed with 580 Scots pines (Pinus Sylvestris L.) measured in Hiiumaa, which included height, diameter at breast height and diameter from the root collar at a height of 5 m. The volumes of tree stem and assortments were estimated with both – the original and corrected (with the measured additional diameter) Ozolinš’ taper curve. Using the original Ozolinš’ taper curve, the stem volume of pines in Hiiumaa is estimated at 4% higher according to the analysis results of 580 measured trees. In the case of Hiiumaa Scots pines (Pinus Sylvestris L.), it is recommended to use 119.717, −289.805 and 1152.016 as the values of the coefficients a0, a1 and a2, respectively, of the Ozolinš’ taper curve equation. In conclusion, for a more accurate assessment of the forest reserve, it is recommended to measure one additional diameter at 5 to 8 m above the root collar on some or all trees.

Changes in the areas and stock volumes of oak stands were analyzed within the six administrative regions in the plain area of Ukraine, based on forest management data (subcompartment database) as of 2001 and 2016. The studied regions geographically related to the Left-bank Forest-Steppe zone of Ukraine (Kyiv, Poltava, Sumy, Kharkiv, Cherkasy and Chernihiv Regions). The analyzed area was over 284,000 hectares. The paper outlines the present state of the oak stands, concerning their origin (vegetative, natural seed and planted seed stands). Forestry-taxation indices of the stands were determined by grouping the plots according to age and further clustering in four age groups. The natural regeneration under a canopy in oak stands was accounted and estimated using circular 10 m2 (R = 178 cm) accounting plots. The oak forests were found to be dominated by stands of vegetative (coppice) origin (57%). Planted seed-origin oak stands covered 101,000 ha or 36% of the total area (284,000 ha). Stands of natural seed origin amounted to 7%. From 2001 to 2016, the total area of oak forests in the study region decreased by nearly 7,000 hectares. The analysis of literature sources allowed identifying numerous factors, which have the greatest influence on the emergence, liveability, and growth of natural regeneration of pedunculated oak. Only 20% of the investigated oak stands were found to have a sufficient amount of oak regeneration. For the implementation of sustainable forest management, activities should be aimed at optimizing the age structure of oak forests and growing natural forests from seeds.

Private forest owners are increasingly responsible for providing an extensive range of goods and services from their forests, as there are around 100,000 forest owners in Estonia. In order to support forest owners in providing these services, the state has continuously backed the forestry sector and established a public-private partnership with forest owners’ associations as well as their umbrella organisations and cooperatives. The aim of this paper is to identify the service and information needs of private forest owners in the context of this established support system. Using a survey sample of 757 respondents, we found that in regard to informational needs more focus should be put on forest management activities, i.e. on available information about service providers’ contacts, prices, options and principles for selling harvesting rights and timber. Furthermore, joint timber sales as a service should be further developed and focused on. While forest owners ranked highly both the information about financial support and the specific measures, they found the system sometimes too complicated. Both in terms of information and service importance-performance, forest owners indicated certification as a low-priority topic. Whilst interest representation in policy processes was indicated as a very important service, its performance was rated quite modestly indicating slight dissatisfaction with the current arrangements. There are also several socio-demographic attributes of forest owners that influence their needs for information and services about forest management. However, a better understanding of these attributes might help develop the system further.

In recent years, with the rapid development of human civilization, a variety of environmental problems have emerged. As the most important natural ecological system of terrestrial ecosystems, forest ecosystem plays a significant role in protecting the environment and beautifying cities. The landscape planning and design of botanical gardens is of great significance to the maintenance of the urban forest ecosystem. Taking the Nanshan botanical garden as the research object, this paper analysed the present situation of the garden and carried out the vegetation landscape planning transformation on it from the perspective of landscape ecology. Then, the landscape hierarchy analysis method was used to evaluate the landscape after the transformation, the results of which suggested that the comprehensive evaluation of the garden was the highest when the plant landscape was diversified and the structure level was reasonable, which provided a reference for the optimization of the urban forest ecosystem.

Copyright of Forestry Studies / Metsanduslikud Uurimused is the property of Sciendo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Net Present Value (NPV) approach is widely applied to assess forest investments, but this method has serious shortcomings, which we propose to overcome by switching to the assessment through the Real Options Approach (ROA). The model in this paper starts with the simulation of the forest’s growth, combined with the projection of the products’ prices and valuing the assets using a binomial model. We include an option of postponement, determining the optimal period of felling. We find that ROA is more robust than the NPV approach because it relaxes the assumption of constancy of both the prices and the discount rate, allowing the determination of the optimal time of felling based on the growth rate of either the forest or the prices of its products. Contrary to the traditional NPV approach, the results obtained with ROA exhibit longer harvest turns and consequently higher profits. The key variable in the ROA, the Real Option Value (ROV) can be shown to be less (albeit moderately) sensitive to decreases of the discount rate than NPV. Moreover, ROV is moderately sensitive to decreases in the price of logs and is negligibly affected by rises in the costs of harvesting, loading and transporting rolls.

The results of scientific studies dealing with the influence of forest management on carbon dynamics are often controversial. Substituting fossil fuels with wood is not always a climate-friendly solution, and besides, it has often a negative impact on biodiversity. The current paper reviews the literature about the influence of different forest management and timber use options on climate change and brings out the accompanying consequences on biodiversity in temperate and boreal climate zones. The forest’s ability to sequestrate and store carbon can be enlarged by appropriate forest management planning and practices. Generally, for mitigation of climate change, the moderate (not intensive) forest management is most favourable, but intensification of management enhances global warming, since forest carbon storage in tree biomass and soil decreases. The mitigation of climate change is just one of the many roles of forest, and climate policy actions cannot come at the expense of species diversity. The complex studies dealing with several forest goals conclude that high carbon store and biodiversity protection do not contradict each other, but the achievement of maximum economic profit at the same time is not possible. The mitigation of climate change and wildlife protection is most effective when it is first of all the forests with a high biodiversity that are managed less intensively. Concerning climate change, the most negative forest biomass use is wood combustion. It is reasonable to burn only such biomass (cut and industrial residues) which cannot be used for producing goods holding carbon for a long time.

Bioenergy, including energy from wood, currently provides about 9–13% of the total global energy supply. Every fibre of fast-growing wood has a value for its potential use as a material in both pulp and paper and wood chemical industries. The aim of this study was to assess the chemical composition and fibre’s properties of fast-growing species in Latvia – aspen, hybrid aspen, lodgepole pine, poplar and willow. Results showed a variation of cellulose, lignin, extractives and ash contents among the species. Kraft pulp yield and amount of residual lignin were measured and properties of pulp fibres determined. Form factor and fine content in pulp were measured. Poplar and aspen wood had the highest content of cellulose, while lodgepole pine had the highest lignin content in wood and the longest kraft pulp fibres. Willow had 20% of fines in pulp. Individual results suggest the most suitable application of each species.

This paper was focused on determining whether gravimetric sampling and impedance method of measuring soil moisture content provided different results and if they did, what was the size of the differences between particular methods on rendzinas and cambisols. The means of moisture content should be equal when using both methods on similar spots. During the research, an Eijkelkamp Penetrologger penetrometer equipped with impedance probes and gravimetric sampling cylinders from Eijkelkamp were used. The samples were taken from the undisturbed stand, ruts, and the centre of the skid trail. The impedance probes were inserted six centimetres deep into the soil. Soil samples were taken from similar depth in order to calculate the moisture content through the gravimetric method. 138 measurements were carried out for each method. The minimal difference of moisture contents measured by individual methods was 0.01%, maximal difference was 22.06%, and on average it was 7.42%. Oneway ANOVA was used for first stage analysis of the statistical sample. It proved that the differences between measurements were statistically significant in two out of three considered stands. Tukey’s HSD test was used to identify which data groups contributed to refuting the aforementioned hypothesis. The test showed that in one stand all relevant pairs of data were significantly different, while in the other stand only data pairs from the ruts were significantly different. The calibration method provided by the producers did not refine the accuracy of the impedance probes sufficiently and different calibration procedures have to be used.

Biomass allocation in seedlings and saplings at different stages of growth is important information for studying the response of species to site conditions. The objectives of the paper are: (a) to analyse the relationship between height and biomass in young Norway spruce and European beech trees, (b) to study the influence of the leaf area on ontogenetic growth stages and biomass sequestration capacity on the regeneration of these two species. 96 seedlings (H < 30 cm) and saplings (31 < H < 130 cm) were collected in different light conditions in a case study in the Alps (Trentino province, Italy). Leaf Area Index and shoot/root ratio were used as indicators of the ecological conditions (e.g. light, soil moisture, nutrient status) able to influence the seedlings and saplings growth. Two non-linear regressions were fitted to analyse the relationship between height and biomass and to develop the aboveground and below-ground allometric equations. Non-linear regressions show that sapling or seedling height is a good predictor of above-ground and below-ground biomass with a R2aj above 0.8 for all equations and a R2aj above 0.9 for above-ground biomass of Norway spruce. The results show that silvicultural practices may influence the regeneration patterns and increase the biomass allocation rate influencing stand density and canopy cover.

During the last decades, several new and invasive tree pathogens have arrived in the northern Europe, damaging forest and verdant trees. New and invasive species (e.g. Lecanosticta acicola, Dothistroma septosporum, Diplodia sapinea, Hymenoscyphus fraxineus) are considered to cause economic loss and be an important threat to biodiversity. Once the alien species have entered into ecosystem, then it is very diffi cult to eliminate them. Therefore, it is important to discover new and invasive pathogens from forests and from imported plant material as early as possible. For that reason, the research team of Estonian forest pathologists has worked out a survey strategy with permanent plots across Estonia - for early detection of new pathogens, which essentially includes molecular monitoring of pathogens. An important task in developing of early detection methods for new and invasive pathogens is working out of quick detection methods by creating original PCR primers. Crucial is also the analyses of pathogens biology, of their spreading and fi nding of all their potential hosts in new for them environment in northern Europe. In cooperation studies with our foreign partners, the Estonian forest pathologists have analysed populations of D. septosporum, L. acicola and H. fraxineus. The population genetic methods give data about the pathogens diversity, vitality and betray potential pathways of them to northern Europe. This information serves for building up the control strategy and helps to fi nd and test resistant tree species progenies. Early detection, molecular monitoring and pathways detection of new and invasive pathogens are currently the most important research tasks of the forest pathology team working in Estonian University of Life Sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alternatives to the restoration of cutaway peatlands include afforestation, energy forests, agricultural production, wetland restoration (restoration of peataccumulating function), reed canary grass (energy mower) or wild berries (blueberry, cranberry) cultivation, protected area for birds, and artificial lakes. Investigations made in several countries suggest that one of the most promising ways of regenerating cutaway peatlands is afforestation. The re-vegetation of Estonian cutaway peat production fields is mainly the result of natural processes, which are generally very slow: vegetation covers only 10-20% of a peat field. Carbon dioxide is not bound anymore in cutaway peatlands where vegetation layer has been destroyed and therefore photosynthetical processes no more occur. Using biofuel ashes (wood ash, etc.) for the afforestation of cutaway peatlands helps to balance the content of nutrients in peat substrate, which improves the survival of planted seedlings and signifi cantly increases bioproduction. Drained and mined peatlands have become a significant source of CO2 but stimulated woody biomass production can be helpful to balance CO2 emission from cutaway peatlands. Because of the limited resources of fossil fuels and negative impacts on the environment in recent decades alternative sources of energy have been actively looked for. In Scandinavia a lot of attention has been paid to finding possibilities for using biofuels. The situation in Estonia is that only very few types of ashes (for example certified oil shale fly ash with product name Enefi ) have been founded to be suitable for utilization and have been used for recycling in agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the method of Compensated Successful Efforts, this paper proposes a structural variables model to assess pre-REDD+ (Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Degradation plus) policies; selecting economic development, population growth, initial forest area, agricultural commodity export prices, and timber prices as structural variables, and empirically analyzes 11 high-forest-growth countries’ policies from 1992 to 2011. Results show that the forest area growth rate was negatively correlated with the initial forest area and agricultural commodities export prices, and positively correlated with population density, GDP per capita, and timber export prices. China and India’s entity fixed effects are more significant; in different periods the rate of actual forest area growth exceeded that of structural forest area growth in 11 countries. Overall, Compensated Successful Efforts proved to be useful for evaluating the effects of the high forest area growth country policies. Regardless, these countries should join REDD+ organizations and continue enhancing their forest management and increasing forest area. As part of this effort, REDD+ negotiations should consider fully compensation mechanisms for these countries to attract more countries and promote the progress of international climate negotiations.

The protection of late-succession forest habitats and continuous woodlands is the primary goal in Estonian forest nature conservation. Therefore ecological qualities of almost all forest stands in Estonian protected areas are described. Forest patches will be mapped and protected as Annex I forest habitats if they have enough structural and functional qualities. The member states of the European Union report in every six years about the conservation status of European Habitats Directive Annex I habitats. Changes in area as well as changes in habitat type’s structure and functions are also declared. In the present paper the dynamics in tree species composition, stand age and larger diameter trees of monitored Annex I forest habitats is analyzed. The mean age of stands is older than the Estonian mean value, but it is only slightly higher than the cutting age of the corresponding tree species. The mean diameter of larger living trees is in general larger than dead wood, which is indicative of the forest succession and historical low-intensive forest management. Currently, conservation activities support natural succession in forests that formerly were managed economically. Therefore, changes in the composition of tree layer species are to be expected. The dominance of spruce and the abundance of broad-leaved trees are increasing in non-managed forest habitats. In contrast, the proportion of pine, birch and aspen decreases significantly. In general the number of tree species in habitat patches will increase; thereby the dominance of certain species will decline. According to the Estonian interpretation of the forest types in the Manual of the Habitats Directive, some stands with changed main tree species will need to be reclassified. Therefore the area of some forest habitat types may increase in the future. On contrary the area and functional quality of some other habitat types may decrease.

The property rights and the type of ownership (private owners, public domain and commons) are two fundamental concepts in relationship to the local development and to the social and environmental sustainability. Common forests were established in Europe since the Middle Ages, but over the centuries the importance of commons changed in parallel with economic and social changes. In recent decades, the scientific debate focused on the forest management efficiency and sustainability of this type of ownership in comparison to the public and private property. In Italy common forests have a long tradition with substantial differences in the result of historical evolution in various regions. In Sardinia region the private forests are 377.297 ha, the public forests are 201.324 ha, while around 120.000 ha are commons. The respect of the common rights changed in the different historical periods. Today, the common lands are managed directly by municipalities or indirectly through third parties, in both cases the involvement of members of community is very low. The main objective of the paper is to analyse forest management differences in public institutions with and without common property rights. To achieve the objective of the research the forest management preferences of community members and managers were evaluated and compared. The analysis was realized through the use of the principal-agent model and it has been tested in a case study in Sardinia region (Arci-Grighine district). The analysis of the results showed that the categories of actors considered (members of community, municipalities and managers) have a marked productive profile, but municipalities manage forests perceiving a moderate multifunctionality. Moreover, the representatives of the municipalities pay more attention to the interests of the collectivity in comparison to the external managers. They also attribute high importance to environmental and social forest functions.

Tree-ring data is commonly used in forest science and dendrochronology. As the collected datasets represent restricted populations of theoretical infinite sample size, an interesting question deals with the sample selection that is carried out during the fieldwork and through the data analyses. This paper considers the latter issue, by statistically examining a recently completed Scots pine dataset of timberline tree-rings from Lapland (northern Finland). Following the detrending of individual ring-width series, the composition of the data was restricted using a pre-determined criteria of linear correlativity between the individual sample series and the master chronology (Rmaster). This procedure reduced both the number of sites and the sample size (i.e. the number of individual tree-ring series) and altered the tree-ring statistics of the remaining subset of the data in a systematic fashion. It was seen that the first-order autocorrelation, mean sensitivity and standard deviation all ascended with the uplifted Rmaster criterion. Conspicuously, such filtering also reduced the correlation between the resulting tree-ring chronology and climate parameter. The results indicated that the screening of the data will alter the chronology statistics in a way that may be artificially generated, irrelative to the predetermined sample selection criteria. We remain to assume that the most fundamental selection of data is attained through the cross-dating process.

This paper describes a recently developed training module on the “ecosystem approach”, with the military as target group. Initiated by NATO-affiliated Civil-Military Co-operation Centre of Excellence (CIMIC COE), the module fits into a multidisciplinary new training approach, in which the military learns to integrate specific concepts into their missions, such as environmental issues. In developing the training module, a combination of the Rapid Ecological Assessment (REA) and Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) techniques has been formed into a stepwise approach for military to enable them to quickly scan and analyse important environmental issues in their mission environments. The result of the training module is an instructive publication and an attached instruction card, the latter being a tool commonly used by military