Understanding Europe’s forest harvesting regimes

A new study, led by CLIMB-FOREST researcher Susanne Suvanto and published in the Earth’s Future journal, quantifies variation in the forest harvesting regimes in terms of frequency and intensity of harvest events.  Through an extensive analysis of forest inventory data from 11 European countries, covering over 180,000 re-measured field plots and more than 2 million trees, the paper sheds light on how forest harvesting differs across Europe.

Quantifying frequencies and intensities of harvest events

Previous research on quantifying harvesting in European forests has, for example, focused on total harvest amounts or used remote sensing data to  identify intensive harvest events. By using a unique forest inventory data set, this new study has quantified frequencies and intensities of harvest events, revealing a notable variation in harvesting regimes across Europe. 

In the Nordic countries, for example, the harvesting regime is characterized by lower frequencies but higher intensities of harvest events, meaning that harvest events occur less often, but when harvest is carried out, a larger share of the stand basal area is removed. Whereas higher frequencies and lower intensities of harvesting are observed towards Central Europe, and particularly in Eastern Central Europe. Both low frequencies and low intensities of harvest events are found, for example, in parts of Spain.

Both socio-economic factors and the natural environment impact the variety of harvest regimes observed across Europe. In particular, the study found that country was an important driver for how harvest was carried out,emphasizing the role of national-level variation in harvest practices that could stem from differences in the history and traditions of forest use, forest ownership structure and the legislation and regulations related to forest management. 

Harvest frequency and intensity were also found to be related to other factors, such as natural disturbances, the structure and composition of the forest, and the topography and accessibility of the site.

Improving information on forest management practices across Europe

The results from this study bring much needed detail to our understanding of the contemporary forest management practices that shape the structure and functioning of Europe’s forests and the ecosystem services they provide.

Using these results, the CLIMB-FOREST project will continue to broaden our understanding of how forests are managed in Europe and to apply these results in modelling of European forests, particularly within the LPJ-GUESS vegetation model. When applied to large-scale modelling frameworks, the improved quantification of forest harvesting can bring a more realistic, empirically-grounded representation of forest management into the simulations and provide a baseline against which future changes in forest management can be assessed.