Dissertation: Cost-efficient conservation requires systematic conservation planning and multifunctional forestry (Hohti)

In Finland, forestry degrades the state of forest ecosystems by reducing structural features important for forest-dwelling species. To halt biodiversity loss and to ensure the efficient use of societal resources, conservation measures should produce as large conservation benefits as possible with the given resources. In practice, however, this is not necessarily the case. 

Ecological planning increases the cost-efficiency of conservation 

An important finding of the dissertation is that voluntary METSO conservation area network does not safeguard nature values in the best possible way. 

- Forest conservation would be more efficient, if the site selection process placed greater emphasis on ecological features. The biggest challenge of voluntary conservation is that the owners of the most ecologically valuable land, do not necessarily offer their land for conservation purposes, clarifies Doctoral Researcher Jani Hohti from the University of Jyväskylä. 

The tension between voluntary conservation and conservation efficiency was evident in the dissertation. The forest conservation prioritization used in the study, originally produced by the Finnish Environmental Institute, revealed that conservation area networks based on obligatory conservation achieved higher cost-efficiency relative to METSO conservation and that METSO conservation has not been directed at the most ecologically valuable forests. 

- However, METSO conservation area network cannot be said to have poor ecological quality, as most of the land included has notable ecological value. However, the network does not safeguard the nature values in the most efficient way, says Hohti. 

Spatial data-based prioritization maps support conservation planning 

According to Hohti, it would be possible to improve the cost-efficiency of METSO conservation without abandoning its voluntary approach. 

- One way to achieve this would be to target conservation efforts more strongly to southern regions where there are more forests with high conservation priority, suggests Hohti. 

Conservation priority maps are a relatively reliable tool to support conservation planning. In field surveys conducted for the dissertation, they proved to be effective in locating sites potentially suitable for METSO conservation. 

Multifunctional forestry provides ecosystem services 

Dissertation showed that ecosystem services and nature values can be secured more efficiently also outside the protected area network. 

- Landscape level multi-objective forest management planning that considers timber production alongside other forest ecosystem services could offer a cost-effective way to increase the ecosystem services provided by forests. However, in practice, achieving this would require a substantial increase in the use of continuous-cover forestry, says Hohti. 

The public examination of FM Jani Hohti’s doctoral dissertation “Forest Conservation and Management in Finland – Towards Systematic Planning” will take place on Saturday, 29 November 2025 at 12:00 in Auditorium 3 of the Agora building. The opponent will be Johanna Eklund from the University of Helsinki, and the custos will be Janne Kotiaho from the University of Jyväskylä. The language of the dissertation defence is English. 

The dissertation “Forest Conservation and Management in Finland – Towards Systematic Planning” is available in the JYX publication archive: https://jyx.jyu.fi/jyx/Record/jyx_123456789_106925?sid=225386177 

Lisätietoa: 

• Doctoral Researcher Jani Hohti, jani.a.k.hohti@jyu.fi