Are Mixtures A Good Option To Reduce Drought-Induced Risk Of Forest Decline? : Carbon Accounting And Economic Approach

• Main Authors: Andrés-Domenech, Pablo, Brèteau-Amores, Sandrine
• Format: Web Resource
• Language: English
• Published: Morressier 01.01.2017
• DOI: 10.26226/morressier.5d5fdb28ea7c83e515cbf31a

Drought is the principal source of stress limiting forest health and it causes financial losses for forest owners and amenity losses for society. The major part of the forested area in the Grand-Est region (France) is dominated by beech, which is predicted to decline in the future due to repeated drought events driven by climate change. Beech forests need to adapt and mixture is known to decrease drought risk. In this context, the objective of the paper was to compare, from an economical perspective, different forest adaptation strategies aiming at reducing drought-induced risk of decline. For this purpose, we studied two types of mixture that we analysed separately and jointly: mixture of beech species with oak species and age mixture (i.e. from an even-aged to an uneven-aged forest), which is rarely considered as an adaptation strategy. We also considered two types of loss (financial, and in terms of carbon sequestration) under different recurrences of drought, that are a consequence of climate change. We combined a forest growth simulator (MATHILDE) with a traditional forest economic approach (Fautsmannu2019s LEV and Hartmanu2019s LEV). The maximisation of the two LEV criteria made it possible to identify the best adaptation strategies in economic terms. We also developed the carbon approach considering different accounting methods (from the market value to the social cost of carbon). The results are discussed taking into account the trade-offs between the financial balance and the carbon balance, and the underlying question of the additivity (or not) of the two adaptation strategies.