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BIOESSHEALTH
Scenarios for biodiversity and ecosystem services acknowledging health
Wood production is a pivotal provisioning ecosystem service of major economic importance and a key component of the transition from a fossil- to a bio-based economy. However, intensive utilization of forests also affects the viability of forest species and other ecosystem services, such as sustaining human wellbeing in the form of stress reduction or recovery. It is therefore needed to modify forest management to secure high yield of wood products, the stability of biological communities and the use of forest to promote public health.
The overall objective is to identify national forest management strategies that produce wood in a sustainable way while also promoting public health. The strategies will balance the global demand for wood, the profitability of forestry, the preservation of forest species communities, and promotion of human wellbeing. The project will estimate the future global demand for wood and the supply of wood in EU countries during the coming 100 years, using the scenarios in the UN Emissions Gap Report. Based on the estimated global demand for wood from the study countries, the project will identify landscape-level scenarios with profitable forestry, stable communities of forest beetles and enhanced human wellbeing. To identify these scenarios, the project will first further develop the global land-use model GLOBIOM, develop models for the structure of beetle communities and an index for human wellbeing reflecting stress reduction or recovery in relation with the diversity of different organism groups.