Aggregating harvest activities in long term forest planning by minimizing harvest area perimeters

Abstract

The study presents a new approach for aggregating stands for harvest in strategic forest planning. In fragmented landscapes this could benefit nature conservation as well as reduce costs. The approach is built on the idea of minimizing the outside perimeter of contiguous harvest areas. The formulation allows for the use of exact solution methods such as mixed integer programming. The method was tested in a landscape consisting of 2821 stands. The application showed that large and compact harvest areas were created with limited sacrifice of financial value. The mixed integer programs were in most cases solved within a couple of hours. The method needs to be tested on different landscapes with different degrees of fragmentation. It is also necessary to evaluate the long term consequences of the large clear cuts that appear to be a consequence of this problem formulation.