Comparing forest governance models against invasive biological threats

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Forestry
• Systems Dynamics

Background:

• Invasive species and pathogens pose significant threats to networked forest ecosystems.
• Understanding the robustness of forest management systems against external perturbations is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the dynamics of stochastic closed-loop input-output systems in forest networks.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of negative feedback mechanisms in mitigating invasive threats.
• To compare the robustness of monofunctional and multifunctional forest governance models.

Main Methods:

• Modeling stochastic closed-loop input-output systems with negative feedback.
• Analyzing forest networks divided into compartments.
• Comparing monofunctional zoning (Australasia) and multifunctional (Western Europe) governance pathways.

Main Results:

• Monofunctional zoning demonstrates robustness against invasive biological threats across all outbreak probabilities.
• Multifunctional governance is robust primarily when invasion probability approaches certainty or when perturbations are uncorrelated.
• Monofunctional systems can employ outbreak avoidance control if invasion is preventable.
• Multifunctional systems necessitate preventive strategies to maintain low invasion likelihood.

Conclusions:

• Monofunctional forest governance offers superior robustness against invasive species.
• The choice of forest management strategy (monofunctional vs. multifunctional) impacts its resilience to biological threats.
• Tailored control strategies are essential for each governance model to ensure forest health and stability.