Human decision-making in forests:
implications for forestry
Lucie Vítková
European Forest Institute
Central European Office EFICENT, Wonnhaldestr. 4, 79100 Freiburg, Germany
[email protected]
Competence in tree marking
Describe how individuals with varying levels of
forestry expertise undertake the task of marking trees
for thinning before and after specific training.
Irish forests
• Low forest cover
• Single species monocultures
• Clearcutting
Interests in transformation
to continuous cover forestry
Mixed species
composition
Transformation to CCF
• Different than conventional forestry practice required
• Necessity to address training
• Marking tree species not routinely practised in IR
Participants
• Complete novices
Non-experts
• Transitional novices
• Intermediate experts
• Experienced experts
Experts
Study design
INTRODUCTION
Testing
without
instructions
FIRST EXPERIMENT
marking prior to training
TRAINING
Testing with
instructions
SECOND EXPERIMENT
post training marking
Results: thinning type
SG > 1 low thinning
SG < 1 crown thinning
SG = 1 indifferent thinning
Indifferent thinning
Low thinning
Crown thinning
Indifferent thinning
Group
SG-ratio
Marking prior to training
Complete novices
Transitional novices
Transitional experts
Experienced experts
1.0*
1.1*
1.2*
1.4*
Post training marking
Complete novices
Transitional novices
Transitional experts
Experienced experts
0.9*
0.9*
1.0*
1.1*
Before training
After training
SG
rG
rG
Level of agreement
• Before training:
– Experts: greater tendencies toward agreement than the novices
– Intermediate experts: the highest level of agreement
• After the training
– Non-experts: the greatest level of agreement (esp. transitional)
– Experts: level of agreement declined (esp. intermediate)
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=agreement&biw=1280&bih=663&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjS_cO8jrfPAhVEuhQKHbuJDKwQ_AUIBigB#tbm=isch&q=agreement+clipart
Practical implications:
Adoption of new management approaches
• Specific training in novel management type
• Focus on: less experienced individuals
• Intensive training: experienced individuals
Summary
• Before training:
Non-experts: random marking
Experts: applied familiar method
Old dog
&
new tricks
• After training:
Non-experts: successful and more accurate
Experts: similar markings as before training
• Varying levels of expertise -> different response to the same task
• One of the first attempts to explore expertise in forestry