> Introduction to the European indicators of Forest Europe 25
Introduction to the European indicators of Forest Europe
Hans Peter Schaffer
The present Forest Report 2015 investigates how the condition of the Swiss forest has developed since the publication of the Forest Report 2005. Both forest reports are based on the indi- cators used in Forest Europe (Forest Europe et al. 2011). Their results are therefore directly comparable and can be com- pared with those of international reporting. The results of the indicator measurements enable an assessment of whether the Swiss forest is being used sustainably. Prerequisites for such an assessment are long-term data series about the condition of the forest ecosystem, based on data from comprehensive forest monitoring conducted since the 1980s (cf. Graphics II and III).
Long-term targets must also be defined, and the federal gov- ernment has accordingly specified such targets in the Forest Policy 2020 (FOEN 2013c).
Sustainably used forest
Providing people with enough food and other vital goods from the forest is an issue that can be traced back a long time (Sedlacek 2012). In his “Sylvicultura oeconomica” (Sächsi-
sche Carlowitz-Gesellschaft 2013), Hans Carl von Carlowitz 300 years ago described a method of sustainably managing the forests and conserving the resource wood in the long term.
Even then, he was concerned about the shortage of the raw material wood. During this time, the insight developed that the regeneration of a resource should be set as the measure of how much it could be used. For forest management, this means that, in the long term, the amount of timber used may not exceed the increment. In Hans Carl von Carlowitz’s time, the forest had been over-used for some time and he therefore proposed the cultivation of reserves. In order to be able to use the timber later and for the sake of succeeding generations, felling was, where necessary, stopped.
Such reflections on sustainable forest management led to the development of the concept of sustainability. The UN Brundtland Commission defined, in its 1987 report, sustain- ability as a development that “meets the needs of the pres- ent without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. This type of development presumes an interaction between society, the economy and ecology, and the resulting concept consists of these three dimensions. The concept of sustainability was first presented at the world sum- mit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and was then adopted by the Swiss Federal Council. Graphic IV shows how the concept of sustainability in the federal Forest Policy (FOEN 2013c) is applied to forest management.
Monitoring sustainability in the forest
A sustainable form of forest management aims to maintain indigenous forest ecosystems and fulfil the public’s current and future needs in the forest. The Swiss Forest Act (WaG 1991) acknowledges – as a basic condition – that it is not only peo- ple’s needs and resulting demands that set the standards, but also the long-term provision of the following services society requires of the forest:
> The forest should be preserved in area and spatial distribution.
> It should be protected as a near-natural community.
> It should be able to fulfil its main functions, namely those of providing protection, wellbeing and utility.
Graphic IV The concept of sustainability in terms of the three dimensions Society, Economy, and Ecology.
Source: FOEN 2013c
Current generation Future generations
Society – Leisure – Recreation – Landscape – Protection against natural hazards
Ecology – Genetic diversity – Species diversity – Habitats – Natural processes
Economy – Timber production – Jobs
Forest management
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> Forest Report 2015 Condition and Use of Swiss Forests FOEN / WSL 2015
Monitoring sustainability requires targets, as well as indica- tors for measuring the extent to which they have been reached.
The federal government has specified the targets at a national level in its Forest Policy 2020. An evaluation of effectiveness is therefore necessary to assess the implementation and attain- ment of these targets. This requires measurement variables, so-called indicators. The related data should be as easy to measure and as reproducible as possible. Using indicators ena- bles the conditions and changes in ecosystems to be recorded in a quickly changing environment over a long period (Schaf- fer 2010). Indicators, however, only describe part of the reality and therefore record only a few aspects of forest ecosystems.
These systems are characterised by complex interrelationship structures. Choosing meaningful indicators is therefore gen- erally difficult. A whole set of indicators are needed to survey the forest as, preferably, a whole ecosystem, and to identify any changes.
Criteria and indicators used
The Forest Report 2015 uses the indicators in Forest Europe (Forest Europe et al. 2011). The set consists of 6 so-called cri- teria and a total of 35 indicators. The 6 criteria are presented and described in the following chapters:
1. Resources
2. Health and Vitality 3. Use
4. Biodiversity 5. Protection Forest 6. Social Economy
Each criterion and the related indicators are dealt with in a separate chapter, with a summary followed by descriptions of the individual indicators. The data compiled for each indicator record various variables from different perspectives (Graphics II and III). This means that the results are not always covering the same area and may be fuzzy – depending on the data- set used. For example, the Forestry Statistics are based on a survey of all forest enterprises in Switzerland. They provide information on the economic state of the forest enterprises and Table I
Description of the 13 basic indicators (Bernasconi et al. 2014) and how they relate to the indicators in Forest Europe (Forest Europe et al. 2011). The corresponding chapters in the Forest Report 2015 are also given.
Basic indicators of the federal government and the cantons Indicators in Forest Europe and related
chapters in the Forest Report 2015 1 Forest area: Sum total of all areas that, at a federal level and in the cantons, are recorded as forest as a
result of the cantons’ own assessments.
1.1 Forest area
2 Growing stock: Volume of stemwood in bark of all living trees and shrubs in the forest area. 1.2 Growing stock 3 Forest structure: Distribution of the forest area according to developmental state and/or diameter classes. 1.3 Age and stand structure 4 Forest damage: Extent of damage to the forest categorised according to the most important types of damage or
damage groups, as well as according to the year or the period when the damage occurred.
2. Health and vitality (2.1 to 2.4)
5 Relationship use of fellings/net increment: Relationship between the use of the wood and the net increment (volume of stemwood in bark) over a certain period of time in relation to the entire forest area.
3.1 Timber use and increment
6 Composition of the types of trees: The area of all main types of trees as a proportion of the living trees. 4.1 Species diversity 7 Natural tree species composition: Evaluation of the naturalness of tree species composition depending on the
proportion of conifer wood.
4.3 Closeness to nature
8 Deadwood: Volume of standing and lying deadwood in the forest area. 4.5 Deadwood 9 Treated area of protection forest: Proportion of the removed and treated protection forest area according to
year of the last intervention and the type of natural hazard.
5.2 Protection against natural hazards 10 Protective effect of the protection forest: Proportion of the area of the protection forests that fulfils the
minimum requirements for Sustainability in Protection Forests (NaiS – Frehner et al. 2005).
5.2 Protection against natural hazards 11 Results of forest management: Total revenue from forest management minus the total costs, where possible
classified according to the primary functions.
6.3 Economic situation of forest enterprises 12 Result of the timber harvest: Total revenue from the forest harvest minus the total costs of the forest harvest in
relation to the ‘productive forest area’.
3.2 Roundwood
13 Recreation in the forest: The frequency of visits to the forest is one of several ways of describing recreation in the forest, in addition to the satisfaction of those seeking recreation or visitor frequency.
6.10 Recreation in the forest
> Introduction to the European indicators of Forest Europe 27
the economic cycle of timber. In the National Forest Inventory NFI, in contrast, aerial photographs are evaluated and data collected in the forest, which involves, for example, special- ists measuring trees and recording their volume. These data are supplemented with surveys of the cantonal forest services.
Both surveys provide information on the use of timber (chap- ter 3), but from different perspectives. They are therefore not directly comparable. This is why the data sources used are always cited in this report.
Basic indicators of the federal government and the cantons
Based on the international Forest Europe indicator set used here, the federal government and the cantons have developed a set of 13 indicators to ensure comparable sustainability re- porting at a national level (Rosset et al. 2012). This set is a minimum set of indicators that can be supplemented by the cantons according to their requirements. These 13 indicators are called the basic indicators. Table 1 shows the relationship between these basic indicators and the indicators used in For- est Europe.
