Forest Productivity and Management

The Forest Productivity and Management research programme addressed how the physical environment, forest management and biological factors affect productivity, composition, structure, and diversity of forest ecosystems.

The project looked at how management intensification can lead to increases in profitability for growers, increases in sustainable raw material, diversity, and carbon sequestration of terrestrial ecosystems.

The objectives were

• to provide knowledge on the growth of tree species on specific sites, the application of this knowledge will allow the growth of tree species to be predicted.
• to provide an ecological foundation for the practice of sustainable forest management information using forest site classification, to quantify productivity, silviculture and management requirements of forest sites.
• the provision of information about the forest resource using GIS technologies to aid the assessment of forest resources from farm forest plantations, leading to the creation of create economies of scale among small scale forest growers.
• to address the challenges facing farm forest plantations to encourage cooperation among small forest growers within defined forest cluster areas, and to put in place a system to enable the coordination of a supply chain for a major heat user.

Further information

• Contact Dr Niall Farrelly, Teagasc