Innovative forest practices and tools for adaptation and mitigation - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Innovative forest practices and tools for adaptation and mitigation to counter climate change Tomasz Majerowski, The Polish State Forests Brussels, 13.11.2019

FORESTS IN POLAND  Forest area in Poland: 9,4 mln ha  Under the management of the State Forests: 7,4 mln ha  Forest cover: ca 30% of the total land area  Growing stock of the Polish forests 269 m3/ha  Biomass of Polish forests contains 822 milion tonnes of carbon FOREST COVER OWNERSHIP STRUCTURE 40% 33%* 29,5% 77% administrated by the State Forests 20,8% 18% individual ownership 2% national parks 0,9% comune owned 0,9% other state-owned 2% other privately owned 2

ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE FORESTS General Directorate Regional Regional Directorate Directorate The organization of the Polish Forest Forest Forest Forest State Forests was founded in 1924 District District District District Employees of the State Forests Workers in outsourced forest services, working in timber harvesting, planting, Employees of sawmills, papermills, furniture industry and building materials 3

MODERN SILVICULTURE AGE STRUCTURE  We plant 500 mln trees per year  We are enhancing the importance of natural renewals – their share in the last six years is 13,8%.  The nurseries produce  The average forest age is over 60 years annually 759 million of seedlings  Stands representing age classes III and IV (53 milion seedlings are prevail in the forest structure and cover beeing produced 24.9% and 19.4% of the forest area in container nurseries) 4

PROTECTING FORESTS AGAINST VARIOUS THREATS The State Forests spend annually ca. 75 million euro on forest protection against natural disasters, insect pests, damage by wild animals and fires. 5

FIRE PREVENTION  Fire risk categorization  Forecasting and early detection 666 lookout towers (257 with cameras) Tests of automatic fire recognition programs 6

FIRE PREVENTION  Alarm and dispatch communication network  Equipment and infrastructure  Prevention: information and educational activities „ Aware of the threat ” campaign by State Forests 7

PREVENTION, COUNTERACTING AND REDUCTION OF THREATS RELATED TO FOREST FIRES 2016-2019  Construction and modernization of 70 fire observation posts  Advanced equipment to locate and detect fires and upgrading alarm & command points  Construction of 11 meteorological stations  New 67 patrol and firefighting vehicles  Total cost of 11 million USD from the State Forests and EU 8 8

WATER RETENTION Eliminate the effects of the deterioration of natural water systems in the forests by slowing down the outflow of water in the forest ecosystems:  Minimizing the effects of drought  Counteracting flood  Restoration of wetlands Support for pro-environmental water retention methods in forests, including (activities carried out in 113 forest districts) :  Construction or modernization of the reservoirs  Slowing down the water flow in catchments  Restoration of wetlands 9

SMALL RETENTION IN LOWLAND & MAUNTAIN AREAS 2016-2022  Renaturalization of wetlands, streams, bank-side reservoirs  Construction, reconstruction or restoration of 2300 small retention reservoirs and other hydrotechnical facilities  Storage of additional 2.5 million m³ of flood or rain water  The total cost of 120 million USD from the State Forests and EU 10 10

DISASTER OF MILENNIUM  On the night of August 11 to 12, Hurricane winds destroyed millions of trees  Initial damage estimates indicated the destruction of nearly 9 million m3 of timber  Over 80,000 hectares of forest have been destroyed 11

DISASTER OF MILENNIUM 12 12 Fot. Tomasz Dębiec

DISASTER OF MILENNIUM  Extraordinary situations require extraordinary actions – in damaged in 2017 forests we started to use photo-optical methods for measuring wood.  In this method operator measures the field of the wood stack wall.  Information about localization an amount of wood are being automaticaly sended to SILP (an internal network system of SF). 13 13 Fot. Tomasz Dębiec

CONCLUSIONS  Forests play a critical role in Climate Change mitigation and adaptation, prevention and preparedness are key issues!  Sustainable Forest Management is vital to ensure long-term climate benefits and economical benefits from healthy and resilient forests.  EU Forest Strategy is needed to ensure coherence in forest-related policies and to enhance the contribution of SFM to EU policy objectives, • CAP • LULUCF • Bioeconomy & Circular Economy • Climate change & Energy • Biodiversity & Natura 2000 EU forests are a growing resource but must be resilient 14 14

Thank you! General Directorate of State Forests ul. Grójecka 127, 02-124 Warszawa sekretariat@lasy.gov.pl tel.: +48 22 58 98 100