Potential policy goal confl icts concerning biomass extraction calls for development of appropriate methods and tools for assessing environmental impacts and for providing solutions concerning multiple uses of landscapes.

Bioenergy from forestry is promoted for climate change mitigation, which may increase biodiversity impacts. GIS-based models were applied to estimate bioenergy yields and biodiversity impacts of forest management policy scenarios.

Globally, biodiversity is declining due to loss, fragmentation and degradation of habitat, which undermines ecosystem functioning and therefore threatens also the ability of ecosystems to supply ecosystem services. Moreover, there is a need for adapting to climate change as well as securing the supply of energy, which have led to a shift in energy consumption from fossil fuel to renewables, especially biomass, which in turn put increasing pressure on ecosystems and biodiversity. In Sweden, forest bioenergy has an important role, and high forest biomass production is an important societal objective. Intensified forestry could increase the biomass production through monocultures of native or introduced tree species as well as forest fertilization. However, due to negative effects on natural forest structures and processes, a more intensive forestry could be detrimental to forest biodiversity. The balance between energy demand and the long-term capacity of ecosystems to supply goods and services as well as support biodiversity is therefore crucial. The existing energy models and research have relatively low concerns on land use, landscape and biodiversity, comparing with high enthusiastic on energy economics, climate change and greenhouse gas emission research. Consequently, it would be difficult to provide comprehensive decision support by using only these economy and climate change oriented tools. However, ecological assessment models and multi-criteria approaches exist with great potential for linking with suitable energy models. This will enable the development of more comprehensive decision support tools for assessing future energy scenarios, integrating main policy concerns when assessing renewable energy options. The research was based on a survey on existing energy models and a case study of forest biomass extraction in Kronoberg, a region in southern Sweden. The aim of this project was to develop and test methods for integrated the sustainability assessment of forest biomass extraction for bioenergy purposes by incorporating effects on biodiversity. Forest growth was simulated under two management scenarios: Even-aged-forestry (EAF) and continuous-cover-forestry (CCF), in a time period between 2010-2110. The GIS-based approaches for assessment of biomass impacts on biodiversity involved an ecological network assessment of prioritized ecological profiles across the landscape under the two scenarios.

Forest is a resource that is increasingly utilized for multiple purposes. The balance between energy demands and the long-term capacity of ecosystems to support biodiversity and other ecosystem services is crucial. The aim of this project was to increase the knowledge on and to develop methods and tools for trade-offs and synergies analysis among forest ecosystem services based on different forest management policies.

Paper I provides an overview of existing models for integrated energy-environment assessment. A literature review was conducted on assessment models and their ability to integrate energy with environmental aspects. Missing environmental aspects concern land use, landscapes and biodiversity. In Paper II a modelling framework was set up to link a landscape simulator with a habitat network model for integrated assessment of bioenergy feedstock and biodiversity related impacts in Kronoberg County. In Paper III we continued with the same management scenarios, while the analysis was expanded to five ecosystem services by developing the Landscape simulation and Ecological Assessment (LEcA) tool: industrial wood, bioenergy, forest carbon stock, recreation areas and habitat networks. In Paper IV we present two heuristic methods for spatial optimization – simulated annealing (SA) and genetic algorithm (GA) – to find optimal solutions for allocating harvest activities, in order to minimize the impacts on habitat networks. In Paper V, as response to the findings in Paper I, we linked the energy model MESSAGE with our LEcA tool for forest bioenergy demand assessment while applying environmental and transport restrictions, in a study of Lithuania.

We found trade-offs between industrial wood production and bioenergy on one side, and recreation values, biodiversity, and to some extent carbon storage on the other side. The LEcA tool integrated forest simulation and management with assessment of ecosystem services, which is promising for integrated sustainability assessment of forest management policies.

Climate change and security of energy supply are main sustainability issues today and an energy systems shift towards renewable energy sources is therefore urgent. However, unless environmental impacts of such a shift are carefully taken into account, imposed resource and land use changes may counteract other sustainability goals, such as preserving biodiversity and ecosystem services. Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) provides a comprehensive framework for assessment of policies and plans where a full range of environmental issues are addressed. The aim of this article was to find possibilities for comprehensive sustainability assessment among published energy-environment models and the linking of renewable energy analysis to landscape and biodiversity issues through land use concerns. Based on the review of relevant energy, environmental and linking models, a survey on publications and a case study on the EU Energy Roadmap 2050, the results show that existing energy models and research have low concerns on land use, landscapes and biodiversity. Consequently, it would be difficult to provide comprehensive decision support by using only these tools. However, suitable energy models, ecological assessment models and multi-criteria approaches exist with great potential for inter-linking. The development of energy models could thus have new orientations, connecting them to involve renewable energy options with land use, landscape and biodiversity concerns, which could be advanced into powerful SEA tools for integrated policy assessment. This will enable the development of more comprehensive decision support tools for assessing future energy scenarios, integrating main policy concerns when assessing renewable energy options.

Forests are important for climate change mitigation by providing bioenergy feedstock to substitute fossil fuels, as well as for carbon storage, while they are also important for other ecosystem services. The REEEM project targets to gain a comprehensive understanding of the system-wide implications of energy strategies in support of transitions to a competitive low-carbon EU society. The current REEEM case study of Lithuania aims to i) analyse the forest biomass potential for Lithuania using the LEcA tool, assessing impacts on ecosystem services of alternative forest management strategies, and compare to energy pathways including forest bioenergy feedstock as a RES; and ii) develop and discuss linking between the energy assessment model that project the energy pathways, in this case the MESSAGE model, and the LEcA tool to enable iterations and information exchange.

Two alternative pathways were run with the MESSAGE model of the use of forest bioenergy feedstock in the development of the Lithuanian energy sector, Biomass Low and Biomass High. This initiated the simulation of forest growth and management of Lithuania with the LEcA tool for 2015-2050 and beyond, applying a Business-As-Usual (BAU) forest management strategy. Based on these results, a second, more intensive (INT) forest management strategy was developed and applied in order to increase the yields. From the output of the simulations of both strategies, the development of five ecosystem services was assessed: forest bioenergy feedstock, industrial wood, carbon storage in the forest, recreation area and habitat supporting biodiversity. For bioenergy feedstock, environmental restrictions and transport distances for harvest residues were considered. In addition, different assumptions about the use of forest compartments for bioenergy purposes were tested.

The estimations of bioenergy feedstock were comparable with the empirical data. However concerning logging residues, the transport distances affecting economy and climate impacts need more considerations, as those may become more pronounced in the future. It could also be concluded that the assumptions concerning the allocation of different forest compartments as bioenergy feedstock would highly influence the results. In the comparison with energy pathways, though, assumptions based on empirical data came much closer than assumptions following forestry manuals. When comparing results with the energy pathways, it was still difficult to estimate with any precision the bioenergy feedstock availability. Looking at the overall situation applying allocation assumptions based on empirical data, the results indicated that during the period up to around 2040 supply and demand may not be so far apart from each other with Strategy BAU, and the supply exceeded the demand with Strategy INT. However, closer to year 2050 when the energy pathways projected a much higher use of forest biomass, it may be more difficult to meet the demands with either of the forest management strategies.

With Strategy INT, the overall yield was around 10% higher than with Strategy BAU, with the highest yields in the beginning of the period. However, the yields were not timing well with the energy pathways, since the major increase would be needed after around year 2040. Still, these results served to illustrate that when increasing the yields above a certain threshold, the resources may be exhausted in the long run. As well, comparing strategies BAU and INT, it could be shown that there are trade-offs to be expected between bioenergy feedstock and industrial wood on the one hand, and carbon storage, recreation and habitat supporting biodiversity on the other hand.

The LEcA tool can simulate forest growth and management with modest data requirements, which allows for exploring forest management strategies across the whole landscape. The GIS-based approach to the bioenergy feedstock problem, using data that in this context has a high geographical resolution, gives more detailed and localised information than what would be possible in more lumped approaches. The possibilities to spatially allocate and as well aggregate spatially explicit information makes the LEcA tool suitable for flexible model linking. Not only impacts can be assessed, but for instance constraints can be formulated for the assessed ecosystem services, so that they should not go below a certain value in any time period, which could also be fed back to the energy model.

For linking between the energy model and the LEcA tool, the first steps of information exchange were recognized and tested. The energy pathways created by the MESSAGE model initiated the forest management strategy BAU, from which the results concerning bioenergy feedstock yield was fed back and compared with the pathways. From this comparison, the second forest management strategy INT was developed, targeting higher yields. In future work these first steps will be further developed, preparing for full linkage between models. The results from the ecosystem service assessment will be fed back to the energy model for informed adjustments concerning a sustainable production of forest bioenergy feedstock. In this way, the links between energy assessment and ecosystem services could be strengthened in a more integrated assessment, targeting to inform energy policy and to increase the sustainability of forest bioenergy options.

The need to adapt to climate change as well as to secure the supply of energy has led to a shift in energy consumption from fossil fuel to renewables. In this context, forest biomass is a resource that is increasingly utilised for bioenergy purposes in Sweden, which along with the extraction of industrial wood may conflict with other sustainability goals such as those related to biodiversity conservation. In order to balance between main sustainability objectives, land zoning policies and related management regimes has been proposed, differentiating between the main management categories protected areas, multi-purpose forestry and intensive forestry. The aim of this project was to develop methods and tools for integrated sustainability assessment of forest biomass extraction, in particular from bioenergy and biodiversity perspectives.

For this purpose, the landscape simulator LandSim was developed and applied in a case study in Kronoberg County in southern Sweden. Forest growth and management was simulated in 5-year time steps for the period 2010-2110. The management followed two land zoning scenarios, one applying even-aged forestry on all forest land except for protected areas (EAF-tot), and one was applying continuous cover forestry on parts of the forest land, combined with protected areas and a shorter rotation time on the other parts (CCF-int). The outcome of the simulations was raster data on tree species, volume and age for each time step and scenario. From the outcome, harvested volumes and bioenergy feedstock yields were derived. The same outcome was used for an ecological network assessment, using the indicator Equivalent Connected Area (ECA) for two model species tied to mature and old coniferous and southern broadleaved forest, respectively.

The results showed that the EAF-tot scenario implied higher yields of biomass feedstock for bioenergy than the CCF-int scenario, while the CCF-int scenario displayed more even yields over the years. By contrast, the CCF-int scenario performed substantially better than the EAF-tot scenario when it came to the ECA indicators. However, the CCF-int scenario involved a range of assumptions mirroring major uncertainties on habitat suitability, which yielded separate results and thus will need further exploration. Moreover, in order to support the model species and related biodiversity components, the forest management would need to allow larger areas to become suitable habitat, as well as to plan for habitat amount and connectivity on landscape scale in order to not only increase habitat size but also ECAs. Conclusively, the modelling framework linking the landscape simulator with the ecological network model could be used for integrated sustainability assessment of bioenergy options, integrating main policy concerns when assessing renewable energy options.

Forest biomass is a renewable resource that is increasingly utilised for bioenergy purposes in Sweden, which along with the extraction of industrial wood may conflict with biodiversity conservation. The aim of this paper is to present a method for integrated sustainability assessment of forest biomass extraction, particularly from bioenergy and biodiversity perspectives. The landscape simulator LandSim was developed and linked with models for the assessment of biomass yields and habitat networks representing prioritised biodiversity components. It was applied in a case study in Kronoberg County in southern Sweden. Forest growth and management were simulated for the period 2010-2110, following two land zoning scenarios, one applying even-aged forest management on all forest land except for protected areas (EAF-tot), and one applying continuous cover forest management on parts of the forest land, combined with protected areas and an intensified even-aged management on the other parts (CCF-int). The EAF-tot scenario implied higher yields of biomass feedstock for bioenergy, the CCF-int scenario only giving 66% of that yield, while the CCF-int scenario performed substantially better when it came to the habitat network indicators, if habitat suitability was ensured. Conclusively, the case study confirmed that the modelling framework of the LEcA tool, linking the landscape simulator LandSim with the biomass yield assessment and the habitat network model can be used for integrating main policy concerns when assessing renewable energy options.

Forests provide a multitude of ecosystem services. In Sweden, the goal to replace fossil fuels could induce substantial changes in the current management and use of forests. Therefore, methods and tools are needed to assess synergies and trade-offs between ecosystem services for policy and planning alternatives. The aim of this study was to develop methods for integrated sustainability assessment of forest management strategies for long-term provisioning of various ecosystem services. For this purpose, the Landscape simulation and Ecological Assessment (LEcA) tool was developed to analyse synergies and trade-offs among five ecosystem services: bioenergy feedstock and industrial wood production, forest carbon storage, recreation areas and habitat networks. Forest growth and management were simulated for two scenarios; the EAF-tot scenario dominated by even-aged forestry (EAF), and the CCF-int scenario with a combination of continuous-cover forestry (CCF) and intensified EAF. The results showed trade-offs between industrial wood and bioenergy production on one side and habitat, recreation and carbon storage on the other side. The LEcA tool showed great potential for evaluation of impacts of alternative policies for land zoning and forest management on forest ecosystem services. It can be used to assess the consequences of forest management strategies related to renewable energy and conservation policies.