Towards better forest management
Europe's forests play vital economic, social and environmental roles. However, various EU- and national-level management policies are often ill-conceived, separate and ineffective for all roles intended for forests. The EU-funded INTEGRAL (Future-oriented integrated management of European forest landscapes) project addressed the inconsistencies. The venture introduced a new methodology better able to balance demands concerning use and conservation of forests. The study involved three phases, applied to 20 landscape cases in 10 European countries. The first involved a diagnostic analysis of key socio-ecological drivers of and barriers to integrated forest management. Secondly, the team examined 80 participatory development scenarios exploring possible futures over the next 30 years. The final phase identified roadmaps of management strategies for integrated and sustainable forest management. Results indicated that two key factors affect forest development. Firstly, public or private ownership and the resulting sizes of forest reserves. The second factor was policies and regulations. Both affect forest management directly while also being subject to external factors, including global timber market, population growth and climate change. Other results showed that national-level regulations are the most important for future forest management. Ecosystem services analyses showed that in all but six scenarios the supply of forest goods and services is expected to increase. The conclusion suggested room for several types of ecosystem services. The team compared the current demands for ecosystem services against future demands. In all cases, effective policy would depend on changing the institutional setting and forest management practices. National public entities will have the greatest responsibility, with the EU playing only a secondary role. INTEGRAL's new methodology, combining forest policy analysis with forest management modelling, provides effective management approaches. The outcomes mean better managed and more sustainable forests.
Keywords
Forest, forest management, INTEGRAL, integrated management, landscapes
