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

2

FOREST COVER

 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

40% 20,8% 29,5% 33%*

OWNERSHIP STRUCTURE

77% administrated by the State Forests 18% individual ownership 2% national parks 0,9% comune owned 0,9% other state-owned 2% other privately owned

3

ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE FORESTS

Employees of sawmills, papermills, furniture industry and building materials Workers in outsourced forest services, working in timber harvesting, planting,

Employees of the State Forests

General Directorate Regional Directorate Forest District Forest District Regional Directorate Forest District Forest District

The organization of the Polish State Forests was founded in 1924

4

MODERN SILVICULTURE

 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 annually 759 million of seedlings (53 milion seedlings are beeing produced in container nurseries)  The average forest age is over 60 years  Stands representing age classes III and IV prevail in the forest structure and cover 24.9% and 19.4% of the forest area

AGE STRUCTURE

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

6

FIRE PREVENTION

 Fire risk categorization  Forecasting and early detection

666 lookout towers (257 with cameras) Tests of automatic fire recognition programs

7

FIRE PREVENTION

 Alarm and dispatch communication network  Equipment and infrastructure  Prevention: information and educational activities „Aware of the

threat” campaign by State Forests

8

PREVENTION, COUNTERACTING AND REDUCTION OF THREATS RELATED TO FOREST FIRES 2016-2019

8

 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

9

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

10 10

 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

• f flood or rain water

 The total cost of 120 million USD from the State Forests and EU

SMALL RETENTION IN LOWLAND & MAUNTAIN AREAS 2016-2022

11

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

12 12

DISASTER OF MILENNIUM

• Fot. Tomasz Dębiec

13 13

• Fot. Tomasz Dębiec

 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).

DISASTER OF MILENNIUM

14 14

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

General Directorate of State Forests

• ul. Grójecka 127, 02-124 Warszawa

sekretariat@lasy.gov.pl tel.: +48 22 58 98 100

Thank you!