Conservation implications of forest changes caused by bark beetle management in the Šumava National Park

0467344 - ÚVGZ 2017 RIV NL eng J - Článek v odborném periodiku
Zýval, V. - Křenová, Zdeňka - Kindlmann, Pavel
Conservation implications of forest changes caused by bark beetle management in the Šumava National Park.
Biological Conservation. Roč. 204, part B (2016), s. 394-402. ISSN 0006-3207. E-ISSN 1873-2917
Grant CEP: GA MŠMT(CZ) LO1415
Institucionální podpora: RVO:67179843
Klíčová slova: Natura 2000 * Forest ecosystem management * Natural disturbances * Bark beetles * National park conservation policy
Kód oboru RIV: EH - Ekologie - společenstva
Impakt faktor: 4.022, rok: 2016

The question, whether the forest management adopted in several European national parks following natural disturbances (windstorms, bark beetle) is in the long term the optimal one is currently widely discussed in a pan-European context. Instead of a clear management policy, however, only non-compulsory recommendations are suggested and management directives are missing. For example, it is established that non-intervention management is optimal for preserving biodiversity in mountain spruce stands, as logging diminishes biodiversity, but no such recommendation has been passed on to the managers of these stands. In the absence of such guidance park managers adopt various suboptimal strategies, which depend on who owns a particular area of the forest (private or state-owned) and their priorities. Here we present an example of this: the differences between the management practices applied by state and private owners in the central part of the Šumava NP. Using aerial photographs, we evaluated the effect of these practices by comparing the status of Natura 2000 habitats in 2004 (when the Natura 2000 area was designated), with that in 2011 (four years after the Kyrill wind storm, when the post-wind storm activities had more or less finished). The private owner logged and removed trees from significantly larger areas than the Šumava NP Authority. However, even management by the Šumava NP Authority was sometimes suboptimal: they managed some valuable habitats in a similar way to those of lower conservation value. We conclude that a clear definition of the long-term management strategy for national parks, obligatory on all owners, is critically important for the management of Natura 2000 habitats.
Trvalý link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0266865