Climate change forces Europe to rethink forest management

Climate change is creating new threats for European forests, and adaptation measures are needed to ensure the sustainability of forests and forestry, researchers say in a report prepared under the auspices of the European Commission, ERR reported.

Estonian University of Life Sciences associate professor of silviculture Jürgen Aosaar and professor of forest pathology Rein Drenkhan said conventional forest management has largely focused on highly productive stands made up of a single species and one age group. These forests developed under relatively stable environmental conditions.

Those management practices may no longer work in changing conditions. Heatwaves, droughts, storms, and outbreaks of tree diseases and insect pests linked to climate change are placing trees and forest ecosystems under increasing pressure. This may reduce forests’ resilience and their ability to provide the ecosystem services society needs.

Forests need adaptive management

The situation requires science based solutions. Researchers brought together in the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy Network recently published an analysis highlighting the need to move towards a risk prevention based forest management model. Drenkhan took part in the network’s work.

This article is based on the fifth annex to the wider analysis, which explains how forest management can be adapted to climate change and biological threats.

Adaptive Forest Management plays a key role in this approach. Traditionally, forest damage is addressed after it has occurred. Adaptive management instead treats forestry as a continuous process of learning and adjustment.

The analysis, led by Michelle Cleary of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, sets out the new approach. Forest conditions should be monitored regularly, and management decisions should be based on information gathered from the forest itself.

The researchers say climate change cannot be stopped through forest management. Forest managers must therefore learn to operate in new conditions and act proactively.

Climate change intensifies disturbances

In addition to becoming more frequent, disturbances are growing stronger as the climate changes. Their combined effects can intensify the damage further.

Despite Estonia’s relatively rainy summer, Central and Southern Europe experienced heatwaves and drought this year. Such periods, as well as storms, are likely to become more frequent in the future.

Poor growing conditions weaken trees, allowing pathogens and insect pests that attack them to take advantage of their reduced vitality.