To celebrate the International Day for Biological Diversity on 22 May, Rach Colling and Helga Pülzl highlight here some of EFI’s most recent and upcoming publications and activities on forest biodiversity.
Why biodiversity in forests is so important?
Biodiversity is the basis for forest functioning, the provision of a multitude of forest ecosystem services and our insurance for the challenges of climate change adaptation and maintaining forest resilience. Forest biodiversity also has an intrinsic value that goes well beyond any human measurable value and that we have to maintain.
Its importance is discussed in our recent EFI policy brief, which looks at the key factors affecting forest biodiversity. The brief also explores how forestry can ensure the conservation and restoration of forest biodiversity, including targeted forestry measures, rethinking forest protection measures and reserves, and making use of landowner incentives.
How can we make forests more biodiversity rich?
Closer-to-Nature Forest Management is an idea proposed in the EU Forest Strategy for 2030, which aims to improve the conservation values and climate resilience of multifunctional, managed forests in Europe. Building on the latest multi-authored scientific evidence, the latest EFI From Science to Policy report 12 proposes a definition of the concept, a set of seven guiding principles and a framework/checklist for flexible European-wide implementation. It also analyses the current pressures on forest biodiversity as well as on the health of, and resilience in, managed forests. The report examines existing nature-oriented forest management approaches in Europe and analyses their ability to support biodiversity, their stability and adaptability to uncertain future conditions.
How can we respond to challenges for Europe’s forest biodiversity?
On 30 May EFI will publish the newest From Science to Policy report 13 on forest biodiversity, which focuses on how we can effectively maintain and enhance forest biodiversity in Europe. It looks at what is at stake, the current external and internal threats to forest biodiversity and makes recommendations for how we should respond – both in terms of forest management, and also in terms of the policy landscape and finance.
The report will be launched at a special ThinkForest event on 30 May – tune in to the livestream on the EFI YouTube channel!
Photo: Goran / AdobeStock
