The European Commission published, on Thursday 27 July, two new guidelines designed to encourage and reward sustainable forestry practices.
The ‘Closer to Nature’ guidelines (https://aeur.eu/f/89o ) aim to strengthen forest multifunctionality and resilience to climate change, while fostering long-term economic and other societal benefits.
Those on payment schemes for forest ecosystem services (https://aeur.eu/f/89p ) present various ways in which land managers, including foresters, can derive monetary benefits from the provision of different ecosystem services. These two guidelines are key deliverables of the EU Forest Strategy.
The Commission points out that forests in Europe have been shaped by human intervention for centuries. As a result, structural complexity and species diversity are unnaturally low in many parts of Europe: seventy-five percent of forests are even-aged and a third of them consist of only one species, while 50% are limited to two or three species. The lack of diversity reduces the resilience of our forests. More than 60% of the biomass in European forests is exposed to risks such as fires, pest outbreaks or wind throws, impacting the capacity of forests for wood provision, carbon sequestration or other services.
The guidelines aim to encourage more heterogeneous and diverse forests. Forests composed of several tree species, age classes and life cycle stages are more resilient and adaptable to climate change and disturbance than even-aged monocultures.
The document on forest ecosystem services provides information and advice to help public and private entities as well as forest owners and managers to implement payment schemes for forest ecosystem services. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)