Forestry provides timber, but also supports biodiversity and supplies other public benefits, including carbon capture to tackle climate change. To enable a sustainable supply of multiple benefits from Irish forests, this project will co-develop decision-support tools for foresters.

 

A Natural Capital Accounting approach will be used, which will allow quantification of forestry stocks, and flows of benefits, at specific forest sites. By assessing the quantity, quality and location of forest stocks, flows of commercial timber production, carbon sequestration, water retention, biodiversity and recreation will be determined. This will be modelled under different land management scenarios to provide managers will the information they need to fulfil multiple objectives at both site and estate level.

 

This is the first project to combine Natural Capital Accounting with Bayesian Belief Network modelling of ecosystem service supply to support a structured decision-making approach in an Irish context.