Mathias Leiter

Forests stand at the forefront of climate change adaptation strategies, with their ability to sequester and store carbon, sustain bioeconomies, foster biodiversity, and provide a whole range of other ecosystem services. There is an increasing trend of promoting this multipurpose functionality of forests, resulting in a shift towards silvicultural practices that differ heavily from the now dominant even-aged, clear-cut forestry. One of these alternative management practices to promote multipurpose functionality is plenter forest management, a type of uneven-aged selection cutting system. Only little is known about the applicability of this management system on a regional or national scale. Therefore, this study assesses the potential expansion of plenter forest management, crucial for climate change mitigation. Focusing on tree species suitability, harvesting constraints, and road accessibility, we analysed factors impacting plenter management for the Austrian province of Styria for current and future climate conditions. Our findings reveal that while current forestry predominantly features even-aged Norway spruce, approximately 14% of the forest area could be managed as mixed-species plenter forests under current conditions. This research contributes to understanding potential in transforming forest practices for enhanced biodiversity, ecosystem services, and climate resilience on a regional scale.

Domestic wood production in Japan is low, and more than 60% of the wood consumed is imported. This is surprising because two-thirds of Japan’s land area is covered by forests. The dominant explanations for this low wood self-sufficiency rate are the lack of forest road infrastructure and the small-scale forest ownership structure. Austria is a country that is similar in topography and ownership structure but has a high wood self-sufficiency rate. Therefore, previous research has compared Japan to Austria. However, these studies did not address basic forest properties in much detail. This study uses national forest inventory data from both countries to assess the forest structures and utilization percentages of the annual wood increment. In contrast to the hypothesis, the results show that the two countries have similar increment rates. In contrast to former studies, the findings indicate that Japanese plantation forests have a higher timber stocking volume than Austrian forests. In Japan, the proportion of the standing volume in the 40–60-year-old age class is much higher compared to the other age classes, indicating an unbalanced growing stock. The results show that the utilization percentage is much higher in Austria (88%) than in Japan (53%). Therefore, the Japanese forest sector has a high potential to increase the harvest of wood.