Multifunctional Forest Management

Abstract

Forests provide a variety of ecosystem goods and services. Multifunctional forest management attempts to control natural processes in a sustainable and near-natural way so that various requirements from the society can be met. Adaptivity to changing conditions (global changes), handling of conflicting goals and the development of alternative management strategies are of central importance.

Objective

At the end of this course participants will be able: - To describe forest management and silvicultural measures for enhancing forest resilience to climate change, increased disturbances, and invasive species, and evaluate their feasibility and effectiveness in various situations; - To concisely describe silvicultural options for the management of multifunctional forests and critically evaluate their feasibility and suitability; - To explain the various social expectations towards forest ecosystem services and their implications for multifunctional forest management and critically analyse conflicts and synergies resulting from different forest ecosystem services; - To carry out research on a given topic, identify relevant literature and present the results in a structured presentation and discuss the implications for forest management.

Content

The course will cover important topics for the sustainable management of multifunctional forests and present silvicultural strategies to fulfil a variety of forest ecosystem goods and services. Current and future challenges of forest management will be presented. The course is structured into the following sub-topics: 1) Forest management under climate change and increasing disturbances. 2) Invasive alien species: Implications for forest management. 3) Non-native tree species: Risks, opportunities and management options. 4) Silvicultural and management options in multifunctional forests. 5) Challenges and silvicultural strategies for wood production. 6) Forest management and biodiversity in temperate forests.

Resources