Anders Ahlström
Senior lecturer
Widespread Unquantified Conversion of Old Boreal Forests to Plantations
Author
Summary, in English
Across the boreal biome, clear-cutting of old, previously non clear-cut forests with high naturalness followed by tree planting or seeding is a major land use change. However, how much previously uncut forest has been converted to plantations remains unquantified. We combine Swedish national databases on clear-cuts and forest inventories to show that at least 19% of all clear-cuts since 2003 have occurred in old forests that were most likely not previously cut and planted or seeded. Old forests have been cut and lost at a steady rate of ∼1.4% per year for the same period, and at this rate they will disappear by the 2070s. There is further evidence that this type of unreported forest conversion is occurring across much of the world's boreal forest.
Department/s
- Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science
- BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
- MERGE: ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system
Publishing year
2022
Language
English
Publication/Series
Earth's Future
Volume
10
Issue
11
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
John Wiley & Sons Inc.
Topic
- Forest Science
Keywords
- boreal forests
- harvest
- land use
- monitoring
- natural forests
- primary forests
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 2328-4277