Tools for sustainable and multifunctional mountain forest management

Forest management is slowly incorporating concepts such as ecosystem services and multifunctionality as a reaction to increasing recognition of forests as providers of multiple irreplaceable ecosystem services and, simultaneously, to growing awareness of degradation of many forests in the world forests due to overexploitation and vulnerability related to changes in climate and society. Tools to support sustainable and multifunctional forest management in mountains are also under development but their application by large communities of stakeholders is still in progress. In an attempt to overcome chronic constraints related to lack of information, knowledge, and technology in the forest sector in the “Nordeste Transmontano” region in Portugal, we developed a group of computer tools to support forest management. The tools include a stand growth and yield simulator, a landscape management optimizer, a fuel and carbon emissions calculator, and tools to develop customized programs and mobile applications. The tools allow users to model and simulate forest growth, yield and management, to produce optimized management plans, and to assess forest scenarios, strategies and policies to support decisionmaking at several scales. In addition to wood production, indicators of other ecosystem functions and services, such as carbon sequestration and emission, and fire hazard are also taken into account. These tools are innovative also in being designed to support technology and knowledge transfer process to forest stakeholders, being therefore accessible, friendly to operate, and open to the forest community in the region and abroad.