Combining spatiotemporal corridor design for reindeer migration with harvest scheduling in Northern Sweden

ABSTRACT

Reindeer husbandry and commercial forestry seek to co-exist in the forests of Northern Sweden. As interwoven as the two industries are, conflicts have arisen. Forest practices have reduced the distribution of lichen, the main winter diet for reindeer. Forest practices have also increased forest density, compromising the animals’ ability to pass through forested areas on their migration routes. In an attempt to reduce impacts on reindeer husbandry, we present a spatially explicit harvest scheduling model that includes reindeer corridors with user-defined spatial characteristics. We illustrate the model in a case study and explore the relationship between timber revenues and the selection and maintenance of reindeer corridors. The corridors are not only to include sufficient lichen habitat, but they are also supposed to ensure access for reindeer by connecting lichen areas with linkages that allow unobstructed travel. Since harvest scheduling occurs over a planning horizon, the spatial configuration of corridors can change from one time period to the next in order to accommodate harvesting activities. Our results suggest that maintaining reindeer corridors in harvest scheduling can be done at minimal cost. Also, we conclude that including corridor constraints in the harvest scheduling model is critical to guarantee connectivity of reindeer pastures.

KEYWORDS:

• Mixed-integer programming
• forest management
• wildlife conservation
• reindeer husbandry
• spatial optimization

Acknowledgements

We would also like to thank Holmen for the forest data set.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded jointly by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and the Precision Forestry Cooperative at the University of Washington. The work was also partially financed by the EU FP7 project Advanced multifunctional management of European mountain forests (ARANGE).