Measuring Non-Wood Forest Outputs in Numerical Forest Planning

This chapter reviews some alternatives for numerically measuring the amount of forest outputs other than timber or economic profit. A common feature of the presented methods is that they can be used in numerical optimisation, either as a component of the objective or penalty function, or as a constraint. The chapter classifies the approaches for dealing with non-wood forest outputs into three categories, namely economic approach, numerical optimisation, and multi-attribute utility theory. The reviewed models devised for non-wood outputs are applicable to the numerical optimisation and utility theoretic approaches. The chapter gives several examples of both empirical and expert models, which have been developed in Finland to predict scenic beauty, amount of forest berries and mushrooms, and ecological quality of a forested landscape. The emphasis, in the description of ecological measures, is on variables, which help to mitigate the fragmentation problem of forest landscapes. In addition to models and approaches, the chapter also provides planning examples that utilise the discussed numerical models for non-wood outputs.