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Tom Pugh

Thomas Pugh

Senior lecturer

Tom Pugh

Understanding Europe's Forest Harvesting Regimes

Author

  • Susanne Suvanto
  • Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert
  • Mart Jan Schelhaas
  • Julen Astigarraga
  • Rasmus Astrup
  • Emil Cienciala
  • Jonas Fridman
  • Helena M. Henttonen
  • Georges Kunstler
  • Gerald Kändler
  • Louis A. König
  • Paloma Ruiz-Benito
  • Cornelius Senf
  • Golo Stadelmann
  • Ajdin Starcevic
  • Andrzej Talarczyk
  • Miguel A. Zavala
  • Thomas A.M. Pugh
Show all

Summary, in English

European forests are being shaped by active human use and management, and by harvesting of wood in particular. Yet, our understanding of how forests are harvested across Europe is limited, as the real harvest regimes are not well described by currently available data. Here, we analyse recent harvests, as observed in permanent plots of forest inventories in 11 European countries, totaling to 182,649 plots and covering all major forest types. We (a) characterize harvest regimes through the frequency and intensity of harvest events spatially across Europe, and (b) build models for the probability and intensity of harvest events at the plot-level and examine the links to potential drivers of harvest, including the pre-harvest forest structure and composition, climatic, topographic and socio-economic factors, and past natural disturbances. The results revealed notable variation in harvest regimes across Europe, ranging from high-frequency and low-intensity harvests in eastern Central Europe to low-frequency and high-intensity harvests in the north, with different strategies emerging in regions with similar total harvest rates. The harvest regimes were strongly driven by country-level variation, emphasizing the role of national-level factors. Pre-harvest forest properties were important drivers for the intensity of harvest, whereas the probability of harvest was more related to socio-economic factors and natural disturbances. The presented quantification of the forest harvesting regimes provides much needed detail in our understanding of the contemporary forest management practices in Europe, providing a baseline against which to assess future changes in management and strengthening the knowledge-base for decision-making on European level.

Department/s

  • LU Profile Area: Nature-based future solutions
  • MERGE: ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
  • Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science

Publishing year

2025-02

Language

English

Publication/Series

Earth's Future

Volume

13

Issue

2

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Topic

  • Forest Science
  • Physical Geography

Keywords

  • forest management
  • land management
  • land use
  • natural resources
  • timber harvest
  • wood production

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 2328-4277