Continuous-cover forestry (CCF) is expected to reduce the negative environmental impacts of peatland forestry in comparison with rotation forestry (RF), but the unknown profitability of CCF on peatlands limits its application in practice. The profitability of CCF was analyzed by simulating management scenarios with a process-based ecosystem model, EFIMOD, which was complemented to describe the interplay between tree growth and water table depth, which is typical of peatland forests. A variety of harvest intervals and post-harvest basal areas for a mature Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) dominated stand was simulated on a nutrient-rich peatland site. Conventional RF was simulated for comparison. CCF provided a higher profit than RF. The best financial performance was obtained with a 15-year harvest interval regardless of interest rate, although the overall profitability of CCF depended on the interest rate used. Ditch network maintenance was needed to maintain the stand growth only when the post-harvest basal area was smaller than 10 m²·ha⁻¹. There were many CCF scenarios in which the difference in the net present value of harvest revenues was within 10% compared with the best CCF scenario. Hence, there are many relatively profitable CCF harvesting alternatives for forest management in boreal spruce-dominated peatland forests.

A solid starting point for assessing tree-improvement programs would be to determine the effect of genetic gain in economic terms at stand level. This paper presents a stand-level optimization analysis of the use of improved seed material in reforestation from the perspective of forest owners. We used a genetic algorithm to study the effects of optimized stand management on the bare land value (BLV) for both genetically improved and unimproved reforestation material, with increase in BLV (ΔBLV > 0) representing the deployment benefit over the standard tree-improvement program. The stand-level optimization analysis was applied to a case representative of economic and climatic circumstances in Finland. The results show that the absolute increase in the BLV is distinctly higher in southern Finland than in central Finland, let alone northern Finland, regardless of the interest rate (3% or 4%) or genetic gain (3% or 15%). Sensitivity analyses revealed that market-related risks need to be taken into account carefully. Our tentative results provide new insight on the financial incentives for using genetically improved seed material in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) stand establishment under varying climatic conditions, but the subject merits further investigation — with greater detail and a more systematic data structure.