0000000001324458
AUTHOR
Asko Löhmus
Introduction – Does nature best manage itself or do protected areas need active conservation?
A traditional approach to limit impacts of forestry on biodiversity is to set aside forests of conservation value. Many set-asides are relatively untouched, but some have a history of disturbances; wildfires, forest grazing, coppicing or small-scale felling. Such areas may gradually lose their value for biodiversity conservation unless the disturbances are re-introduced or managed otherwise. On the other hand, many currently protected forests have a history of commercial management, and may lack important characteristics of natural forests. Some of these lost features, can be brought back by active management faster than they would recover naturally. Recently, interest in active management …
How does manipulation of dead wood affect forest biodiversity? - A systematic review
Dead wood (DW) provides a critical habitat for thousands of wood-dependent (saproxylic) species in forests. However, intensification of forest management has heavily reduced the amount and diversity of DW. This has resulted in many saproxylic species being threatened and has caused a situation where interventions aiming at increasing DW might be necessary to support its associated biodiversity. Examples of such interventions include felling, girdling, creation of high stumps, leaving of crowns, logs and trees during harvest operations, and restoration burnings. Although the evidence base on how effective different interventions aiming at increasing DW volumes grows, there is a lack of revie…