The usefulness of stability concepts in forest management when coping with increasing climate uncertainties

Forest management is challenged by increasing needs to adapt practices to future climate change likely to be characterised by a changing frequency of extreme weather events, in turn in uncertain ways resulting in more pronounced disturbances on forests. In this paper, we explore the extent to which insights acquired by ecological theory, in particular with respect to stabilising properties, have been of use to forest management theory and practice, and whether these insights can be applied in a valuable way to forest managers in view of increasingly uncertain disturbance regimes. We find it highly unlikely that there exists one strategy option that can optimise for all types of disturbances and that can also maximise for all other demands placed on forest management. Therefore, management needs to be related to the most relevant disturbances; or, alternatively, a multitude of management options may be combined as an insurance strategy. Possibly, heterogeneous/mixed forest communities could insure against climate-change related pressures. We also note the importance of spatio-temporal scales when relating disturbance to stability, and thus the needs for advancing modelling in that field to assist in developing management strategies for the future. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.