The aim of the committee is to develop a usable and acceptable method for identifying forest areas important for biodiversity and to produce openly available map with this method. Our objective is to produce material to halt the deteriorating state of biodiversity for various actors, such as the needs of environmental and forest management, but also to support land use planning and other land use decision-making.
© Image: Ninni Mikkonen
The work is carried out in a multidisciplinary working group with experts from different perspectives: conservation biologists, ecologists and foresters, including experts in forest resource information, statistics, forest planning, forest structure and conservation planning.
The work is based on the best available spatial data on the state of biodiversity. In addition, we utilize other related information that can be combined with the topic and material. Due to the lack of data, several modelling methods will be developed to express the presence of traits important to biodiversity. Ultimately, a spatial conservation prioritization optimization of all biodiversity features will be done to ensure a balanced outcome. This is done using Zonation software.
The spectrum of end users of will be wide, starting from ordinary people interested in nature, and ending with the authorities and for-profit companies. Therefore, the publication of the materials and method will pay special attention to the usability and ease of understanding of the results.
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Coordinator Ninni Mikkonen