Metla Project 3410

Society's cervid population targets and their effects on forestry, bio-diversity and forest ecosystem management - a pilot study

Duration: 2005 Keywords: benefits, cervids, costs, ecological carrying capacity, forest owners, habitat, hunters

Objectives

The main am of this pilot study is to extract new results from existing research material and to plan new research tasks on the basis of the results achieved. The results will also be integrated with those of on-going investigations. The investigation will concentrate on under what circumstances and to what extent cervids cause damage in forestry and create problems for bio-diversity and forest ecosystems. The aim is to reduce the damage done by cervids to seedling stands by employing the information used by regional forest plans, details of the size of the cervid population and assessments of existing food reserves. A key aspect of the investigation is also the evaluation of the costs and benefits related to cervids that accrue to various interest groups of society. From the perspective of multifunctional forestry, cervids offer considerable recreational opportunities. The investigation will examine how hunting activities can contribute to rural vitality and provide opportunities for rural enterprise. Hunting also helps to control the damage to wood production that can result from large populations of cervids. The optimum cervid population density is to be sought by finding the comprise between the demands of ecology and forestry, taking into account the views of the various interest groups concerned.

Project leader: Aarnio, Jukka

Other researchers: Heikkilä, Risto, VA (2005), Horne, Paula, VA (2005), Nikula, Ari, RO (2005), Petäjistö, Leena, VA (2005), Selby, Ashley, VA (2005)

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Updated 12.06.2012
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