April 2016

Moving towards an ecosystems-based form of management for forests in Europe

The EEA has just published a report “European forest ecosystems. State and trends” which reviews the state of European forests from an ecosystems perspective. It’s now understood that forests can offer a wide range of goods and services and that management should acknowledge this and attempt to optimise appropriate delivery. Under the concept of Sustainable Development, global forestry has largely been working to a broad policy of ‘Sustainable Forest Management’ (SFM) since the early 1990s. The EEA report examines SFM in the wider context of Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) and concludes that EBM provides a valuable framework compatible with SFM but capable of wider understanding and integration beyond the forestry sector. Andy Moffat was delighted to contribute to this report through inputs to workshops and report writing during 2015. To download a copy, go to http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/european-forest-ecosystems