ForestPaths partners participated in a recent study on the styles defining the harvesting of wood in Europe’s forests. In particular, Thomas Pugh from Lund University, Mart-Jan Schelhaas and Ajdin Starcevic from Wageningen Environmental Research Institute, and Cornelius Senf from the Technical University of Munich were among the experts who contributed to the paper wherein the investigation was laid out. 

In cooperation with 14 other researchers, they carried out a comprehensive study of how harvesting is undertaken across all major forest types across Europe. The study spans 11 countries and relies on information from a pan-European dataset containing data from 182,649 permanent plots of national forest inventories altogether. The analysis encompassed: 

• a characterisation of harvest regimes through the spatial frequency and intensity of harvest events; 

• an examination of the links to potential drivers of harvest, including the pre‐harvest forest structure and composition, climatic, topographic and socio‐economic factors as well as past natural disturbances. 

The authors identified a pronounced variation in practices across the continent, even in cases where the total harvest rates are similar. For instance, while high‐frequency and low‐intensity harvests are commonplace in eastern Central Europe, low‐frequency and high‐intensity harvests are prevalent in the north. National factors influence the dominance of certain approaches, indicating a great diversity amongst the 11 countries. This following figure produced as part of the paper showcases this conclusion: 

Overall, the new paper is an important step on the path to a more complete and detailed understanding of forest management in Europe. These insights are being used by the forest resource models in ForestPaths to set up harvesting rules that represent the current harvesting patterns. This forms the basis to test alternative Climate and Biodiversity-Smart approaches for consideration in the development of the policy pathways. 

You can find out more about ForestPaths’s ongoing research into modelling for policy support here.