Aim of study: to review the present state of the art in relation to the main labour risks and the most relevant results of recent studies evaluating the safety and health conditions of the forest harvesting work and better ways to reduce accidents.Area of study: It focuses mainly on developed Countries, where the general concern about work risks prevention, together with the complex idiosyncrasy of forest work in forest harvesting operations, has led to a growing interest from the forest scientific and technical community.Material and Methods: The main bibliographic and Internet references have been identified using common reference analysis tools. Their conclusions and recommendations have been comprehensively summarized.Main results: Collection of the principal references and their most important conclusions relating to the main accident risk factors, their causes and consequences, the means used towards their prevention, both instrumental as well as in the aspects of training and business management, besides the influence of the growing mechanization of logging operations on those risks.Research highlights: Accident risk is higher in forest harvesting than in most other work sectors, and the main risk factors such as experience, age, seasonality, training, protective equipment, mechanization degree, etc. have been identif ied and studied. The paper summarizes some relevant results, one of the principal being that the proper entrepreneurial risk management is a key factor leading to the success in minimizing labour risks.

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The wood anatomy of the three species of Juniperus occurring in Macaronesia is compared for the first time using representative samples of each species collected in its natural region of provenance: J. cedrus Webb & Berthel and J. phoenicea L. var. canariensis Guyot, in the Canary Islands, and J. brevifolia (Seub.) Antoine, in the Azores. The three species are anatomically similar, although some qualitative differences were observed: distribution of axial parenchyma very scarce in J. phoenicea compared with the other two species, presence of crassulae only in J. phoenicea, presence of torus extensions and notches on pit borders in the radial walls of J. brevifolia, and ray parenchyma end walls slightly nodular in J. cedrus as opposed to very nodular in J. phoenicea and J. brevifolia. In addition, the biometry of tracheid pit diameter in the radial walls, ray height in number of cells, and largest and smallest diameters of cross-field pits shows differences for a significance level of 95%.

The wood anatomy of 14 species of Cupressus was studied to determine whether there is a pattern of wood anatomical diversity between the species from the North and Central American (western) region and the Eurasian (eastern) region. Xanthocyparis vietnamensis and Chamaecyparis nootkatensis (syn. Xanthocyparis nootkatensis) were also studied to compare their wood anatomy, given their recent inclusion by some authors in Cupressus. The arrangement of the axial parenchyma, morphology of the transverse end walls of the axial parenchyma, presence of ray tracheids, typology of the end walls of the ray parenchyma cells and ray height support to some extent the division of Cupressus into two large groups: the American group (western region) and the Eurasian group (eastern region), as proposed in molecular phylogenetic studies. The wood anatomy of Chamaecyparis nootkatensis shares the presence of ray tracheids and the same ray typology with American Cupressus, and has the same ray height as Eurasian Cupressus. In contrast, Xanthocyparis vietnamensis shares the absence of ray tracheids and the same ray typology with Eurasian Cupressus, and has the same ray height as American Cupressus.

For the first time, the wood anatomy of Tetraclinis articulata (Vahl) Masters has been studied using representative samples from its natural distribution area in Spain, in Sierra de Cartagena (Region of Murcia). Mature wood was collected from five individuals representative of the forest stand and their anatomy was compared with other genera of the Cupressaceae. Axial tracheids without helical thickenings, low homogeneous rays, cupressoid pits and the absence of normal axial resin canals are characteristic features of this monotypic genus, as they are of most other Cupressaceae genera. An obvious warty layer separates this wood from the genera sharing its territory (Cupressus and Juniperus) and its semi-spherical, slightly anastomosed warts distinguish it from other, geographically distant genera (Actinostrobus and Callitris). The presence of traumatic axial resin canals is reported for the first time and supports the occurrence of this feature outside the Pinaceae. The wood anatomical diversity within the clade comprising Tetraclinis, Microbiota and Platycladus, as reconstructed by molecular analysis, is discussed.