National Implementation of the Forest Europe Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management

Linser, Stefanie; Wolfslehner, Bernhard

doi:10.3390/f13020191

Cited by 14 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Meeting the current and increasing demands for evidence-based forest policymaking that can have a targeted impact relies on regular, comparable, temporally, and spatially representative information from National Forest Inventories. Other monitoring systems are presently based on national and pan-European indicators that monitor the state and trends of sustainable management (Forest Europe 2020, Linser & Wolfslehner 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Key information for forest policy decision-making - Does current reporting on forests and forestry reflect forest discourses?

Linser,

Lier,

Bastrup-Birk

2023

iForest

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Forest discourses help identify forest-related issues. They aim to aid policy and decision-makers in understanding forest-related challenges and opportunities better so that they may initiate possible strategies and tactics to tackle them. Ideally, information requirements for the forest discourses would be translated into measurable variables, being the basis for collecting, analysing, and reporting data and information. Our study examined the connection between major international forest reporting processes and forest discourses. We analysed summaries and key findings for policy makers of five recent major forest reports. We compared their focus with forest discourses on climate change, forest conservation, deforestation, forest decline, illegal logging, industrial forestry/bioeconomy, traditional knowledge, woody biomass production, and innovative wood-based biofuels. The paper explores how the forest discourses are reflected in the surveyed documents and closely examines the specific focus areas in the summaries for policy makers. The results show that most forest discourses are generally well-represented, albeit with different foci. The discourse on illegal logging could not be identified in any investigated documents, even though it remains a significant concern for international forest policy. Keywords related to traditional knowledge and woody biomass production could not be found in two of the analysed findings. All analysed summaries and key findings mention issues related to the climate change discourse topic. However, they lack information on emissions from deforestation, carbon dioxide emissions and carbon budgets, which are high in political discussions. The paper highlights how discourse issues have gained in complexity both topic-wise and regarding the reporting obligations, as policy and decisionmakers require more timely and comprehensive information about the status' and trends of forests.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Key information for forest policy decision-making - Does current reporting on forests and forestry reflect forest discourses?

Linser,

Lier,

Bastrup-Birk

2023

iForest

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“…In Europe, the framework for sustainable forest management focused mainly on commercial forests, includes among other criteria the criterion 2 concerning the maintenance of forest ecosystem health and vitality (compromised by both biotic and abiotic stressors) and criterion 4 concerning the maintenance, conservation and appropriate enhancement of biological diversity in forest ecosystems, both important goals for all member states of EU. However, the framework works mostly for the commercial aims and ecosystem services (Linser and Wolfslehner 2022). One of the main conclusions in 2020 referred to the state of (managed) forests which was deteriorating in Europe where insect pests, weather conditions and fungal diseases were reported as major causes of defoliation (Raši 2020).…”

Section: The Health Of Forestsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The roles of plant pathogens in old-growth forests

Fodor

Hâruța

2022

Bucov. For.

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Old-growth forests are considered a benchmark for naturalness and models to which one compares managed forests, comparison leading to debates around biodiversity and its conservation, structure and dynamics, polarizing conservationists and forest practitioners. Plant pathogens are frequently disregarded as components of forests biodiversity, the common perception referring to this category of organisms as important biotic stressors. However, pathogens building several functional groups (necrotrophic and biotrophic pathogens, endophytic pathogens, sapro-parasitic species, generally on wood), in highly natural forests such as old-growth forests are establishing interaction networks with several other functional groups of organisms such as hyperparasites, consumers, disease facilitators, indirect opportunistic species (such as tree hollow dwellers), saprotrophs or mutualists. Being connected to old trees (rare or missing components of managed forests) or to endangered forest plants, pathogens become indicators of naturalness and biodiversity. The gradient going from saprotrophs, to sapro-pathogens and generalist/specialist pathogens characterizing forest ecosystems is linked at great extent to wood and bark, being connected to nutrient cycling as ecosystem level process. As long as disease is maintained within the baseline mortality of the trees, pathogens play the important role of control factors and contribute directly and indirectly to forest biodiversity. The current disease ecology progresses, the biodiversity integrative studies, and the new holistic approaches shaping modern ecology bring in the focus rare, endemic pathogens as important control factors of plant populations, as components of the plants’ phenotypic niche and of the global biodiversity, as potential providers of services (sources of medicines) and components of the intricate ecological webs. However, the comparisons between old-growth and managed forests biodiversity should be focused on species evenness (high evenness in old-growth forests versus low evenness in managed forests) and not particularly on species richness. Still, there are pathogens responsible for major biotic disturbances in forests worldwide, the invasive, alien or emerging pathogens threatening both old-growth forests and managed forests.

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“…The Pan-European set of criteria and indicators has been researched through several international projects (EFI 2013, FAO 2016, UNECE 2017). In the last few decades, the criteria and indicators of SFM have been more intensively researched, whether it is the implementation of Pan-European criteria and indicators of SFM at the international (Baycheva-Merger and Wolfslehner 2016), regional, national or subnational level (Duinker 2001, Hickey and Innes 2005, Santopuoli et al 2016, Linser et al 2018a, 2018b, Linser and Wolfslehner 2022.…”

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confidence: 99%

Pan-European Criteria for Sustainable Forest Management - Attitudes of Forestry Professionals in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Marić

Bećirović

Delić

et al. 2023

SEEFOR

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Climate change is recognized as a global threat that negatively impacts biodiversity and forest resources. The use of existing indicators for sustainable forest management (SFM) related to biodiversity and climate change, as well as the development of new indicators, will help assess how forest management practices impact biodiversity enhancement and climate change mitigation. A Pan-European set of criteria and indicators has been developed as a policy instrument for monitoring, evaluating, and reporting on the progress in implementing SFM. In Bosnia and Herzegovina and Western Balkans in general, the Pan-European set of criteria and indicators is an insufficiently researched topic and there is a lack of scientific research conducted regarding their development and implementation. Through the analysis of the current situation in forestry of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), regarding the compliance and importance of the Pan-European criteria for SFM, this paper aims to explain how the international process of development and application of the Pan-European criteria for SFM can contribute to the improvement of the situation in forestry and the creation of a consistent forest policy in FBiH. The survey among forestry professionals (n=360), from the public forest administration and public forest companies in FBiH, included the sets of questions related to socio-demographic characteristics, assessment of compliance and importance of six criteria of SFM. Research results revealed that forestry professionals are mainly males, on average 41 years old, with 13 years of working experience. The majority of forestry professionals in FBiH are not familiar with Pan-European criteria for SFM, and have a low level of their understanding. On average, forestry professionals indicated that the Pan-European criteria for SFM were of high importance, while compliance with current forest management activities were rated lower on average. The large differences between responses regarding the average rating of compliance and importance of the Pan-European criteria for SFM indicate their low level of implementation in FBiH forest management activities. Accordingly, the results indicate that there is a need to organize educational lifelong learning programs in FBiH forestry sector, involving forestry professionals and other interested parties, to generate knowledge related to the Pan-European criteria for SFM and the concept of SFM in general.

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National Implementation of the Forest Europe Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management

Cited by 14 publications

References 16 publications

Key information for forest policy decision-making - Does current reporting on forests and forestry reflect forest discourses?

Key information for forest policy decision-making - Does current reporting on forests and forestry reflect forest discourses?

The roles of plant pathogens in old-growth forests

Pan-European Criteria for Sustainable Forest Management - Attitudes of Forestry Professionals in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

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