{"id":18179,"date":"2025-04-10T16:18:16","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T14:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/integratenetwork.org\/?p=18179"},"modified":"2025-04-10T16:18:19","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T14:18:19","slug":"balancing-forestry-and-biodiversity-conservation-its-important-to-showcase-how-things-can-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/integratenetwork.org\/2025\/04\/10\/balancing-forestry-and-biodiversity-conservation-its-important-to-showcase-how-things-can-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Balancing forestry and biodiversity conservation: \u201cIt\u2019s important to showcase how things can work\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cWe have the need to improve biodiversity on every scale\u201d, says Dr. Frank Krumm, researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research and co-editor of the book How to balance forestry and biodiversity conservation: A view across Europe<\/a> (2020). <\/em>\u201cThis is what we know from research. It\u2019s one of our tasks. But we also need to see where our forests come from.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means considering different forest traditions, different socio-cultural backgrounds, and diverse ownership structures \u2013 placing efforts for biodiversity conservation within these contexts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cSo, if I have the need to really manage protection forests, maybe biodiversity conservation is stepping back to a certain extent to provide this ecosystem service of protecting people and infrastructure against natural hazards. And it\u2019s the same for other requests or demands on forests.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Frank Krumm
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Not a black-and-white issue<\/strong> <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Striking a balance between forest management and biodiversity conservation is not a simple task, nor a black-and-white issue, says Dr. Frank Krumm. Rather, it\u2019s a negotiation that needs to happen between local forest managers, forest owners and communities living in close relationship to a specific environment. Balancing different needs is therefore always a contextual endeavor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By showcasing 32 case studies of forest enterprises, forest owners and regional initiatives, all implementing forest management approaches that integrate biodiversity conservation, the book How to balance forestry and biodiversity conservation: A view across Europe<\/em><\/a> (2020) aims to merge theoretical knowledge with practical examples ranging across different forest types and traditions across Europe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThere are maybe different solutions in different regions, in different parts of the world, in different forest traditions. This is why we went quite broad and across Europe, across very different ecosystems, across very different socio-cultural systems. And I think that\u2019s a very good reason, to motivate others that they really see, it can work. We have the proof in these cases.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Frank Krumm
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research<\/p>\n<\/div>

\u201cIt\u2019s important to showcase how things can work\u201d<\/strong> <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Every forest is different and not every forest enterprise can provide the same ecosystem services. \u201cHaving a 3-hectare forest or a 3000-hectare forest, certainly makes a big difference\u201d, says Dr. Frank Krumm. The book therefore aims to provide forest managers with diverse tools and options that can support their decision-making processes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe idea was not only to create a book publication that is freely available, it was also to create a network that people can really learn from each other and see what they are doing, how they cope with challenges and with very specific demands in their areas.<\/em>\u201d<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 Dr. Frank Krumm, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Through a spider graph that considers diverse ecosystem goods and services, <\/strong>the editors aim to make it easier to understand and compare different case study examples. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe idea was really to find a graph or a way to express that different enterprises follow different approaches and have to fulfil different ecosystem services,\u201d explains Dr. Frank Krumm, co-editor of the book, alongside Andreas Schuck (European Forest Institute) and Andreas Rigling (ETH Zurich). <\/p>\n\n\n

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Ecosystem goods and services (adapted from MEA 2005) delivered by forests as the basis of a holistic view on forest management. The spider-graph indicates the weighting of the individual goods and services in respect to their importance, financial resources invested, or work power applied in a forest enterprise (Illustrations by Vivanne Dubach).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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As a publication that highlights the local and contextual nuances of integrative forest management, the book also aims to contribute to an understanding that timber production and nature conservation do not need be treated as mutually exclusive but rather can be compatible, when forests are managed appropriately. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can forestry become more integrative?<\/strong> <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Through their chapter \u2018Driving factors for integrated forest management in Europe\u2019<\/em>, authors Agata Konczal, Jakob Derks (Wageningen University) and Johannes H.C. de Koning (University of Copenhagen) wanted to better understand how<\/em> and why<\/em> nature conservation is being integrated into forest management practices across different European forest units and enterprises.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo, when a forest owner or forest manager is telling me, \u2018I\u2019m implementing biodiversity conservation measures into my forest management practices\u2019, I wanted to check what does it actually<\/em> mean? What do you do and why <\/em>are you doing this?\u201d says Dr. Agata Konczal, Assistant Professor at the Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group at Wageningen University. \u201cOnly through such analysis can we understand why biodiversity conservation is important for practitioners and what helps or hinders their integration into forest management\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social expectations and intrinsic motivation are key drivers<\/strong> <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

By mapping current and future social, economic, political, technological and ecological drivers across 9 European case studies, the authors came across various regional differences around what facilitates or hinders the application of Integrative Forest Management. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, social expectations generally stood out as important drivers, says Dr. Agata Konczal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“So, foresters and forest owners, they feel that this is what society expect from them, meaning to focus more on biodiversity conservation. So that was interesting for us to realize is that social pressure can support and help foresters to think and implement these biodiversity conservation measures. But it also hinders, it stops them from implementing biodiversity conservation because they feel, or at least some forest owners and some forest managers reported, that for society it\u2019s never enough, that what they seem to want is no forest management. Rather they only want strict protection. So, here we come to this paradox of social expectation. So that was really important for us to kind of map this to realize how important the social drivers are in the story of biodiversity conservation.\u201d <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Agata Konczal
Wageningen University<\/p>\n<\/div>