Forest ecosystems are increasingly seen as multi-functional production systems, which should provide, besides timber and economic benefits, also other ecosystem services related to biological diversity, recreational uses and environmental functions of forests. This study analyzed the performance of even-aged rotation forest management (RFM), continuous cover forestry (CCF) and any-aged forestry (AAF) in the production of ecosystem services. AAF allows both even-aged and uneven-aged management schedules. The ecosystem services included in the analyses were net present value, volume of harvested timber, cowberry and bilberry yields, scenic value of the forest, carbon balance and suitability of the forest to Siberian jay.Data envelopment analysis was used to derive numerical efficiency ratios for the three management systems. Efficiency ratio is the sum of weighted outputs (ecosystem services) divided by the sum of weighted inputs. The linear programing model proposed by Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes was used to derive the weights for calculating efficiency scores for the silvicultural systems.CCF provided more ecosystem services than RFM, and CCF was more efficient than RFM and AAF in the production of ecosystem services. Multi-objective management provided more ecosystem services (except harvested timber) than single-objective management that maximized economic profitability. The use of low discount rate (resulting in low cutting level and high growing stock volume) led to better supply of most ecosystems services than the use of high discount rate. RFM where NPV was maximized with high discount rate led to particularly poor provision of most ecosystem services. In CCF the provision of ecosystem services was less sensitive to changes in discount rate and management objective than in RFM.

In Finland, uneven-sized forest management is gradually becoming an acceptable practice. At the moment, there are no silvicultural instructions for the management of uneven-sized forests, although there is willingness among forest owners to adopt this practice. This study optimized the steady-state structure and management of uneven-sized Scots pine and Norway spruce stands, so as to help develop management instructions. The post-thinning diameter distribution of the uneven-sized stand was optimized with 20-year cutting cycle when aiming at maximal economic profitability. Spruce stand optimizations were done for fertile and medium sites and pine stand optimizations for medium and poor sites. The optimal post-thinning distributions had a truncated reverse J shape, the frequencies of all trees larger than 18–20 cm being zero. This shape means that all log-sized trees have to be removed at 20-year intervals when economic profitability is maximized. When sawlog production was maximized, the largest retained trees were 25–30 cm in diameter at breast height (d.b.h.). The optimal diameter distributions of pine stands were clearly more uniform than spruce distributions, i.e. the preponderance of small trees was less pronounced in pine. With 2 per cent discounting rate, the optimal post-thinning basal area of trees larger than 5 cm d.b.h. was 11–12 m² ha⁻¹ for fertile spruce stands and 4–9 m² ha⁻¹ for pine stands and spruce stands of medium fertility. Uneven-sized management was found to be more profitable than even-aged management; even-aged management was more profitable only in spruce stands on fertile sites in southern Finland with low discounting rate (1 per cent). Increasing discounting rate and decreasing site productivity improved the relative performance of uneven-sized management.

Forestry offers possibilities to sequestrate carbon in living biomass, deadwood and forest soil, as well as in products prepared of wood. In addition, the use of wood may reduce carbon emissions from fossil fuels. However, harvesting decreases the carbon stocks of forests and increases emissions from decomposing harvest residues.

The long-term carbon balance (CB) of unmanaged forest was compared to the CBs of management scenarios which included cuttings. The calculations were done for a typical forest holding representing mineral soil sites in Central Finland. CB was calculated for twenty-one 10-year periods. Three carbon stores and sub-balances were included in the analysis: (1) below- and above-ground biomass of living trees; (2) forest soil (dead organic matter); and (3) wood-based products. Substitution effects and the releases from harvesting, transporting and manufacturing were included in the CB of products. The no-cutting scenario had the best CB for 120–130 years, after which the cutting scenarios were better. In the no-cutting scenario, the CB of living biomass turned zero after 150 years and the CB of forest soils was still positive after 200 years. At the end of the 210-year simulation period the CB of the unmanaged forest was 0.09 Mg C ha⁻¹a⁻¹ suggesting that old-growth forest is a weak carbon sink. Heavy selective cutting in a mature forest removing half of growing stock volume had a negative influence on the CB of forestry for three decades, after which the balance was better than without cutting. Since the negative and positive effects of cutting have different durations, conclusions about the effect of cutting depend on the length of the time horizon. Because the net effect of cutting is negative in the short term, a short-sighted analysis leads to no-cutting decision when carbon sequestration is maximized, which is a wrong decision in a longer term. When harvested volume was equal to volume increment, the carbon stocks stabilized to 65 Mg C ha⁻¹ for living biomass, 80 Mg C ha⁻¹ for soil and 18 Mg C ha⁻¹ for products.

Forest management involves considerable amounts of uncertainty related to future timber prices and tree growth. A new element in forest-management planning is climate-induced change in tree growth. This study used stochastic adaptive optimization to derive optimal adaptive rules for the management of a mixed stand of Norway spruce, Scots pine and birch, when (1) both price and growth were stochastic and (2) there was a climate-induced growth trend. Optimized reservation-price function was used as the adaptive rule for final felling. The optimal times of thinning treatments were described by rules that related the thinning year to the growth rate of the stand. The results suggest that an improving growth trend slightly shortens optimal rotation lengths. On the other hand, risk related to timber price and growth tended to increase the rotation length. Increasing timber-price volatility increased the reservation price and rotation length. When risk and risk-aversion increased, maintaining a more diverse stand structure was profitable.