Forest Ecology and Management 132 (2000) 520

European forest ecosystems: building the future on the legacy of the past
hrerb, Dermot Ryana, Edward P. Farrella,*, Erwin Fu c ttld, Pietro Piussie Folke Andersson , Reinhard Hu
Forest Ecosystem Research Group, Department of Environmental Resource Management, University College Dublin, Beleld, Dublin 4, Ireland b r Forstentomologie, Forstpathologie und Forstschutz, Universita t fu r Bodenkultur, Hasenauerstrae 38, A-1190 Vienna, Austria Institut fu c Department of Ecology and Environmental Research, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7072, S-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden d r Bodenschutz und Rekultivierung, Fakulta t Umweltwissenschaften und Verfahrenstechnik, Lehrstuhl fu t Cottbus, P.O. Box 101344, D-03013 Cottbus, Germany Brandenburgische Technische Universita e di Firenze, Via San Bonaventura 13, I-50145, Firenze, Italy Istituto di Selvicoltura, Universita
a

Abstract The viability of the many civilisations of Europe has depended, to a very large extent, on an adequate supply of wood. In the Ancient World, this supply was secured through the exploitation of forest reserves, the conquest of new territories and, when these opportunities no longer presented themselves, through the conservation of diminishing resources. Ultimately, civilisations collapsed because of the shortage of wood. Although some silvicultural techniques were known in the preChristian era, the scientic management of forests was not widely practised until the late 18th century. It is argued that the controlled exploitation of `nature', on sustained yield principles, only became possible when men came to view the forest, not as a nuisance, an Arcadia or a pagan horror, but as a centre of wood production, a biological factory. The emergence of scientic forestry, however, did not put an end to the exploitation of forest resources. Unregulated felling and traditional practices such as litter raking exerted an insidious, negative inuence on the fertility of the soil. The impact of human exploitation has often been underestimated by scientists, in recent decades, in particular, in the context of forest decline. While sustainable management, seen as sustained yield of wood supply, has been practised in forestry for centuries modern ideas of sustainability are broader in scope, embracing all the goods and services of the forest. Increasingly, forests are being managed as multifunctional ecosystems, often for amenity purposes. Forest ecosystem research, which developed from a range of traditional, highly focused disciplines, requires, if it is to make a meaningful contribution to forest management, long-term interdisciplinary studies. It provides the basis for ecologically intelligent management decisions and as such, is central to the development of sustainable forestry management. Central to the successful implementation of research ndings is their efcient transfer from the researcher to the manager. If the research community identies such an interchange as an important part of their duties, it will be a decisive step towards the better use of forests in Europe.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 353-1-706-77-16; fax: 353-1-706-11-02. E-mail address: ted.farrell@ucd.ie (E.P. Farrell)

0378-1127/00/$ see front matter # 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 3 7 8 - 1 1 2 7 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 3 7 5 - 3

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It is only by deepening our knowledge of the past, accepting the challenge of the present and acknowledging that, as researchers, we have also a responsibility to communicate with users, that we can foster the growth in wisdom which is fundamental to the wise use of Europe's forests in the next millennium. # 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Forest history; Exploitation; Sustainable forest management; Forest ecosystem research; Technology transfer

1. Woodland exploitation in Europe Public attitudes towards the forest and forestry have changed dramatically over the past 50 years. The objectives of forest management have broadened far beyond the simple goal of timber production. Our understanding of how forests function has also developed during this period so that we now, perhaps in a return to an earlier consciousness, see the forest, not as a wood factory, but as a functioning ecosystem. The challenge facing forest managers today is to adapt to the new demands of society, to develop from being crop managers to ecosystem managers. The challenge facing forest ecosystem scientists is to provide the manager with the tools to perform this new job. The European Forest Ecosystem Research Network (EFERN) was set up to advance the understanding of European forest ecosystems in all their diversity. As one of its priorities, EFERN seeks to advance knowledge through improving communication between forest ecologists across Europe. A pan-European view of forestry enhances our ability to comprehend the dynamic nature of our forests, to see them as products of the environment, an environment in which human inuence has featured strongly. EFERN also seeks to dene, within this pan-European context, a small (and therefore manageable) number of priority research subjects which are particularly important for the protection of forests. In this opening paper, we will discuss forest use in Europe from Ancient times up until the present, and in particular the evolution of forest management and its inuence on the present-day sustainability of forests. We trace the evolution of forest ecosystem research, and consider how the considerable advances made in this area can best nd practical application. The past illustrates eloquently both the disastrous consequences which result from a failure to understand the dynamic relationship between forestry and society, and the progress that can be made when scientic theory is applied intelligently to problems.

2. Definitions of concepts Sustainability:  Sustainability has traditionally been seen as the ability to maintain productivity indefinitely with no net decline, even if the forest is subject to stress and perturbations. This might best be termed Sustainability of Yield.  More recently, sustainability has been understood as much in terms of the maintenance of a balanced nutrition of the plant cover, maintenance of the soil capacity for future production, maintenance of the hydrological stability of catchments, or the maintenance of other more society-centred values and amenities. In contrast to definition 1, this might be termed Sustainable Forest Management. Resilience: The ability of a system to return to its original state or a new equilibrium after disturbance. Multifunctionality: The attempt to satisfy simultaneously the economic, social and aesthetic demands we place on the forest resource. 3. Historical overview While the development of formal forestry education, in Germany in the eighteenth century and in France some 40 years later, is widely recognised as marking the beginning of the scientic approach to the management of forests, the history of the human interaction with the forest in Europe is long and complex. Kimmins (1992) identies four basic stages in this history:  Unregulated exploitation of local forests and clearing for agriculture and grazing.

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 Institution of legal and political mechanisms or religious taboos to regulate exploitation.  Development of an ecological approach to silviculture and timber management and the goal of sustainable management of the biological resources of the forest.  Social forestry, which recognises the need to manage the forest as a multi-functional resource in response to the diverse demands of modern society. The availability of wood was a prerequisite for the expansion and development of all the early civilisations (Perlin, 1991). The search for new woodland to exploit resulted in wars and conquests of adjoining territories. When this no longer proved successful, conservation methods were often attempted, with strict legal penalties or religious taboos placed upon the felling or exploitation of certain species and the grazing of woodland. In Ancient Greece, for instance, sacred groves generally escaped the axe, coming to resemble modern-day national parks as refuges of pristine wilderness. However, by the 5th century B.C., when wood shortages had become acute, religious sanctions were no longer enough, and secular punitive measures were taken to protect the groves. On the island of Kos, anyone found cutting down cypress trees was fined the equivalent of 3 years' pay for an average worker. Laws proliferated into the 4th century B.C. A decree in Athens forbade the removal even of twigs from groves. In this period, Macedonia, with its great resources of unexploited timber, overtook Attica as a great power until it was in turn eclipsed by the rise of Rome. The serious, direct consequences of deforestation were recognised as long ago as the third millennium B.C. in Mesopotamia. The droughts that followed the felling of the great cedar forests of the Fertile Crescent are alluded to in the Epic of Gilgamesh (Sandars, 1972). In the 5th century B.C., Plato noted the damage to the soil resource resulting from deforestation in Attica (Hamilton and Cairns, 1961). Erosion reduced agricultural productivity, resulting in further forest clearance to make new areas of fertile land available for agriculture. Industries such as iron smelting, pottery and shipbuilding were directly affected by the shortage of wood. The pattern of exploitation, attempted conservation and ultimate decline can be observed in the history of

many regions. The collapse of the Roman Empire brought with it major changes in land use. Cultivated land was again overrun with forest (Darby, 1956). Much that had been learned was forgotten so that the evolution of the human interaction with the forest that had occurred in the Ancient World was paralleled at a later stage by developments in Central and Northern Europe. Again, unregulated felling and grazing were practised until concerns over wood shortages led to the introduction of controls. For example, a code in early Irish Law (approximately the 8th century A.D.) set out penalties for the felling or damaging of privatelyowned trees, listing eight classes of trees of varying `nobility' (Kelly, 1976). The general impression given of this time by Old Irish manuscripts is of scattered, often privately-owned woods and copses whose scarcity demanded careful protection by law (Kelly, 1997). As in the Ancient World, the consequences of deforestation for soil stability and regional hydrology were learned through catastrophe. The concept of forest protection originated in the Middle Ages; in Switzerland the oldest records of protection forests, where all cutting was prohibited to prevent avalanches and landslides, go back to 1339 (Muotathal) and 1387 (Altdorf) (Anon., 1983a). Despite the fact that refor rnberg, in estation of felled sites in the vicinity of Nu Germany, had been initiated as early as the 14 century by Peter Stromer (Hasel, 1985), hard lessons were still to be learned. Even as late as the 19th century, largescale clearance of Alpine forests resulted in devastating erosion (Glacken, 1956). Legislation controlling uchi, felling at high elevations was introduced (see Kra 2000) and watershed management became an important function of the forester in Alpine regions. While the benets of this strategy soon became apparent, it was also recognised that this control represented an articial manipulation of a natural system and the need for a more ecological approach was recognised (Johann, 1998). By the 1950s, various forms of `near-to-nature' forestry were being implemented in mountain regions in Switzerland, France, Germany, Italy and Slovenia. The strategy of the acquisition of timber supplies through the occupation of new territories, common in the Ancient World, appears again in medieval Europe. As long as forests were apparently limitless in extent, there was no concern to conserve or manage them, but when they became scarce, migration and conquest

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often began. In Central Europe, around A.D. 1000 1100, a need for new sources of wood drove the Germans into the lands of the Slavs (Darby, 1956). Wood shortages in Britain were, in part, responsible for the destruction of Irish forests (Neeson, 1991). In more recent times, migration has been of less importance and conservation strategies have been employed, but with varying degrees of rigour. While Colbert's ordinance of 1669, which recognised the need to protect the forest and sought to regulate intervention in the forest, is well known, the rst forestry code controlling the felling of oak in France, was introduced as early as 1376 (Ningre and Doussot, 1993). At an even earlier stage in Austria, due to intimate connections between mining industries and forestry, regulation of mining included strict rules on the use of mountain forests. For example, in a mining code issued in 1237 by the Archbishop of Salzburg, the transformation of clearcut areas to meadows and pasture was prohibited and reforestation was made mandatory. Around the same time, donations made to monasteries by the Archbishop of Salzburg were accompanied by injunctions against forest clearance (Johann, 1983). Human impact on woodlands in Northern Europe can be traced back to Neolithic times from the pollen records of Southern Scandinavia (Berglund, 1966, pp. 166167 and references by Iversen cited there) . The predominant lifestyle was rst that of a hunter; cattleholding came into practice later. During the Iron Age, the population increased markedly and villages were established. Degradation of woodlands occurred over wide areas as grazing and agriculture increased and as forest products such as fuelwood, tar, potash, charcoal and timber were extracted. The need to protect the woodland from misuse can be seen in provincial legal codes and later still in forestry acts. The King and the nobility protected numerous forests for hunting purposes, and many of the deciduous forests of Southern Scandinavia are still in existence as a consequence of this. 4. Moving beyond regulation of exploitation towards wood production Few civilisations have ever proceeded beyond Kimmin's second stage in the history of human interaction

with the forest, even though some silvicultural techniques were known in the pre-Christian era. An early example of silviculture is to be found in the work of Cato from ca. 200 B.C. (Meiggs, 1982). In an agricultural treatise, he describes wood as a crop (though of little value) and describes how to coppice, set up willow groves and plant poplar on wet ground. It was his belief that an estate should grow its own timber, so as to import as little as possible. Varro (30 B.C.) and Columella (1st century A.D.) also wrote about silviculture, particularly of elm, since it was useful in training vines and as fodder for sheep and goats. In Egypt, in the 3rd century, arboriculture was practised to relieve wood shortages in a land short of indigenous timber (Perlin, 1991). Willows, mulberry trees, acacias and tamarisk were planted in parks, and the government provided nurseries for gardeners to tend their seedlings. However, wood grown in Egypt never attained large size and the Egyptians were forced to construct ships and buildings with imported wood. Much later, in the 11th century A.D., when diplomatic strife led to severance of trade between Egypt and its main suppliers of wood, the cultivation of trees became a national priority (Perlin, 1991). Trees were planted on both sides of the Nile, and were irrigated by canals. Over one hundred square kilometres were given to trees in this important agricultural region, indicating how seriously the shortage of wood was being taken. Later still, many monasteries were established on the margins of forests in order to develop the forest resource, establishing intermediate zones between the dense forest and open farmland where coppice systems were practised (Schama, 1995). Hence, it seems that the potential to progress to the next stage, the scientic management of forests, existed in several previous civilisations. It is interesting to speculate why these ancient civilisations never made that step towards sustainable forest production. In some cases, conquest opened up new sources of pristine woodland for exploitation and the techniques that had been learned were shelved or forgotten. In others, social decline had proceeded too far to allow the effective implementation of silvicultural strategies. However, perhaps the philosophy of the times was the overriding factor preventing the development of large-scale scientic forest management.

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5. Paradigm shifts and the development of scientific forest management A change in direction in the prevailing current of thought, when new philosophies and new metaphors with which to view and assess the world are created, can result in every aspect of life being viewed in an entirely new manner. These profound reassessments of man's accumulated knowledge are called paradigmshifts, and as in every intellectual endeavour, they have played a major role in the evolution of modern production-forestry. While the attitude of the uneducated peasant to the forest which surrounded him was very different to that of the minority, intellectual elite who recorded their thoughts and their ideas, it was ultimately the attitude of the intellectuals which brought about a radical change in the human interaction with the forest. The accumulation of information and techniques was vital but not in itself sufcient to begin a social or scientic revolution. A new worldview or paradigm provided a context in which to interpret and implement the information. The establishment of the German, Austrian and French forestry schools in the late 18th and early 19th centuries reected just such a changing attitude towards the manipulation of `nature'. These schools emphasised the importance of site productivity, as expressed by the cumulative increment of trees on an area basis, as a control on forest exploitation. This management principle was underlain by the assumption that the productivity of forests is stable over time. Such an approach involved systematic measurement of yield as a prerequisite for the economic evaluation of the enterprise. The forest was seen as a resource to be utilised, but, very importantly, to be utilised in a controlled, sustainable manner. This view of a timber production forest is epitomised by `Schlagwaldwirtschaft', the regulated felling of the forest in sections, which was introduced in parts of Germany in the 18th century (Ernst, 1998). The forest was no longer seen as a multi-functional resource for the local population but as a means of turning `wood into silver' (ibid.). This view of the forest is perhaps best seen not as the end-point, but as a stage in the development of human attitudes to the world, and specically to the forest. Human attitudes to the forest have changed markedly over the course of history. In classical times,

when timber was plentiful, Homer and Hesiod wrote of the woodlands of Greece in a merely pragmatic manner. Other writers of the same time considered them to be largely a nuisance, since they stood in the way of cultivation and settlement (Perlin, 1991). By the 5th century B.C. in Greece, woodland had become scarce and intellectuals began to emphasise its importance. While Plato, the idealist, spoke longingly of the abundance of woodland in Attica in its golden age, his pupil Aristotle, the realist, saw timber as one of the necessary properties of the virtuous leader of the wellrun state. Similarly, Rome and its surroundings were once thickly covered by wood of such density that reputedly birds could not enter. By the 4th century A.D., the Emperor Julian contemplated the dense, silent, dark forests of Germany in awe, and marvelled that there was nothing like them in the Roman Empire (Frazer, 1922). As the remaining woods dwindled around Rome, writers began to idealise and romanticise the remnants. The charm of a sylvan environment, they believed, produced `sublimity of thought and a wealth of inspiration' (Perlin, 1991). This trend towards the idealisation of nature was repeated much later in northern Europe, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It is arguable that the reverential, often fearful, attitude to the woodlands that prevailed in Pagan times protected numerous and possibly sizeable areas of woodland from exploitation. In pre-Christian times, tree cults were very common in Europe (Frazer, 1922; Schama, 1995). Groves of oak were held sacred in Gaul and Britain. Ash and yew were venerated in Ireland, and as late as the 19th century ash in the vicinity of holy wells was not cut, despite the severe shortage of rewood during that time (Neeson, 1991). Ash was also a sacred tree in Nordic mythology. It is not surprising therefore that many early Christians regarded the forest as a dark, forbidding, un-Christian place, or that some felt obliged to demonstrate the power of their god by felling sacred trees. This fear of the wilderness and in particular the forest, persisted until the 18th century, when, under the inuence of the Romantic poets, the perception of nature as something almost human and a thing of beauty began to develop (see below). However, even before this period, not all people regarded the forest with such fear. Bloch (1964) describes a world of `forest people', frequently regarded with suspicion by the settled population, who

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lived in and off the forest as hunters and traders in the late middle-ages. The weakening of the power of the earlier religious restraints in the post-Pagan period led to the trees being cut down with the fervour of the new religion (Meiggs, 1982). The triumph of Christianity is very important, therefore, since modern forestry would have been literally unthinkable had the view of trees as spiritual beings, or the earthly domicile of such beings prevailed. A similarly profound paradigm-shift was that of the Age of Enlightenment. This age of Descartes, Galileo and Newton emphasised empirical, reductionist and mechanistic approaches to the world. With the arrival of the notion of biological entities as `living machines', the concept of the forest as a `factory' to produce wood was within reach for the rst time. The empiricism of the Age of Enlightenment also brought with it a condence that, with enough observations, any phenomenon could be understood. Hence, forestry, along with so many other disciplines, was approached in a far more scientic manner than ever before, leading ultimately to the foundation of the forestry schools of Germany, Austria and France. So scientic forest management became possible only when mankind came to view the forest, not as a nuisance, an Arcadia or a pagan horror, but as a centre of wood production, a biological factory. Abandoning sacred, deistic or anthropomorphic views of nature was a decisive paradigm shift in the evolution of forest management. It is interesting to note that the Romantic view of Nature mentioned above, also dates from this time, but it has many sacred and deistic overtones. It seems strange that such contrasting attitudes existed among intellectuals at the same time, but in a sense Romanticism was a reaction against the prevailing rationalism of that time. Certainly, scorn of Voltaire and Newton, among others, is clear in William Blake's poem `Mock On' (Mason, 1996). Both the Romantic and the Rationalistic views of Nature have modern-day adherents (see New Paradigms in Forestry, below). 6. Human impact on the sustainability of forest ecosystems Even before the advent of even-aged stands and the `normal' forest, the structure and species-mix of the

woodlands of Europe had been altered profoundly. The centuries-old practices of understorey-removal, coppicing, grazing, grubbing and wood-pasture have had far-reaching effects. For example, Rackham (1996) estimated from the Domesday survey that England in 1086 was poorly wooded (15% land cover). He also believed that it is unlikely that any of this was wildwood; every woodland belonged to someone and was used. Although, in general, woodland in other European countries was not as heavily modied as this, we can see that European woodland was not, in any strict sense of the word, `pristine' even 900 years ago. The emergence of scientic forestry did not put an end to the exploitation of forest resources. As populations grew, the demands on the diminishing forest resource increased, the distance to forest resources increased and the supply of both wood and non-wood products from the forest became crucial to the sustainability of the human population. In some cases, unregulated felling continued on a large scale. Practices such as litter-raking developed into established rights over much of Central Europe without any realisation that they might have a detrimental inuence on the long-term sustainability of the forest (Glatzel, 1991). Openings in the forest were used as pastures, litter was gathered for use as bedding for animals and subsequently, mixed with dung, as an organic fertiliser. In broadleaved woodland, leafy twigs were harvested in September and dried, to be used as winter fodder. These practices resulted in a signicant export of valuable nutrients from the forest and consequently contributed to a reduction of the acid-neutralising capacity of the soil and the acceleration of soil acidication. When widespread symptoms of forest decline rst appeared in the late 1970s, they were initially attributed solely to the known deterioration in air quality through this century. The direct inuence of centuries of exploitation by humans tended to be overlooked. It is now apparent that forest decline is the product of an amalgam of stress factors which produce a variety of symptoms, including defoliation and foliage discoloration. Centuries of litter-raking, unregulated large-scale felling and the transformation of mixed woodland into coniferous monocultures must surely have had at least as great an impact as ttl and Schneider, 1997). present-day air pollution (Hu Kreutzer (1981) found that even two generations after

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changing over to coniferous monoculture, pure Norway-spruce stands were still losing far more nitrate from the soil through leaching than long-established Quercus/-Tilia forests. This nding was mainly related to the prevailing decomposition and nitrication of organic matter accumulated in the former deciduous forest and the transition to the shallower, coniferous root system (Feger, 1993). Climate change, whether as a result of human inuence or not, may also be inuencing forest health. Rather than exclusively blaming air pollution, legislators and researchers would have served forestry better by instigating research programmes based on a deeper understanding of the history of forest use and its impact on ecosystem processes and sustainability. There is little doubt that an inadequate knowledge of site history, its impact on ecosystem processes and a limited understanding of forest resilience have restricted our ability to interpret research and have detracted from its utility. Moreover, the paradox of the forest decline phenomenon is that the documented evidence of a deterioration in forest health has been accompanied, in some of the most severely polluted areas of Central Europe, not by a reduction in site productivity as might have been predicted but by increased productivity (Spiecker et al., 1996). The causes of this trend are complex, but have in many cases been related to more sustainable forest use patterns and to climate change. Growth stimulation may result from increased availability of soil nitrogen, both from atmospheric sources and from improved land management practices, interacting with elevated concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. However, these growth increases may be short-lived, as little is known yet of the long-term inuence of increased availability and accumulation of nitrogen on the sustainability of forest ecosystems. The recovery of damaged forests and the recently conrmed increases in productivity, both of which run contrary to the expectations of only a decade or two ago, are evidence of persisting deciencies in our understanding of ecosystem func ttl, 1998). tion (Hu A plausible explanation for the recent increase in catastrophic windthrow and insect outbreaks in Central European forests is the enormous extension of conifer plantations during the past 100 years. Progressive site-degradation and inappropriate speciescomposition of stands, together with air pollution and

episodic weather extremes, deplete the resistance of trees to insect and pathogen attack and impair postattack recovery. `Abnormal' epidemics have been observed in certain pest and pathogen species during the past decades; previously common pests have decreased in economic importance, while species formerly mentioned in literature only in footnotes hrer, 1989). have emerged as serious forest pests (Fu These facts may indicate that the equilibrium of the food chain has been upset, which might be a consequence not only of forest mismanagement but also of environmental inuences, such as the changing composition of the atmosphere. Besides the deposition of various toxic atmospheric pollutants, the forests are exposed to increased nitrogen input and elevated carbon dioxide. While these have apparently induced increases in productivity, at least in the short term, they have also been accompanied by unpredictable vaara and patterns of pest and disease outbreaks (Helio isa nen, 1993; Lindroth, 1996; Koricheva et al., Va 1998). 7. New concepts in sustainability: new demands The scientic approach to the management of forests in Europe has been based upon the maintenance of a sustained yield of wood supply. Modern ideas of sustainability embrace all the goods and services of the forest and suggest that `sustained yield' should be replaced by the broader concept of `sustainable forest management' (Wiersum, 1995). This broader denition of sustainable development puts new demands on the forest manager, expanding the scope of management to embrace a wider range of goods and services. This, in turn, requires that we better understand how the many forest ecosystems of Europe function, so that we can dene regional criteria for such sustainable management. This is a challenging task. At best, the practice of ecosystem management is fraught with difculty. A consideration of the several biomes which the forests of Europe embrace, the highly disturbed, dynamic nature of these ecosystems and the paucity of data on their properties and stage of degradation or recovery further emphasises the enormity of the task. The commitment to sustainable forest management in Europe has been developed in the Helsinki and

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Lisbon Conferences one of several major international forums currently addressing the issue of sustainability in forestry (Anon., 1993). The Helsinki Process was established in 1993 as a development of earlier ministerial conferences held in Strasbourg in 1990. Its membership includes most European countries. In the Lisbon process it has developed info criteria of sustainable forest management and for each criterion a series of indicators against which progress can be measured over time. Socio and economic aspects have also been included. Nevertheless, both the concept and denitions of sustainable forest management are unsatisfactory in several respects. They tend to ignore the fact that soil, climate and even the ecosystems we are asked to manage on a sustainable basis are all dynamic and that the natural tendency in soil development, in temperate regions, is towards soil acidication (Ball, 1975), except in rare cases where equilibrium has been reached. 8. New paradigms in forestry Denitions of sustainable forest management tend not to be explicit on whether sustainable development should be pursued for the benet of future generations or for the sake of the forest itself (Farrell, 1997). In 1992, the Society of American Foresters added a new canon to their Code of Ethics, reecting professional commitment to a `land ethic'. Interpretation of its meaning are diverse, with disagreement as to whether it represents an ethic of the land (that is, peoplecentred) or for the land (Craig, 1992; Proctor, 1996). The latter concept is related to the rather controversial idea that nature has intrinsic rights and the fact that such a view commands support suggests that the value systems that dene the concept of sustainable forest management are to a large extent, derived from the views of society, rather than from forest or ecological science (Wiersum, 1995). This is reminiscent of the Romantics' view of Nature (discussed above). Scientic forestry developed with the goal, ultimately, of maximising the long-term economic return from the forest, a goal that has remained virtually unchanged to the present day, despite the growth in understanding of ecosystem function.

In recent years, however, the emphasis on timber production has diminished and forests are being managed more for amenity purposes, providing a refuge from the cities. This attempt simultaneously to satisfy the economic, social and aesthetic demands we place on the forest resource is often called multifunctionality. The popularity of the `back to nature' movement is growing and with it, the selfrighteous satisfaction that Europe is managing its forests wisely, in a sustainable manner. Society may compliment itself on this apparent manifestation of sustainability, but in fact it may be illusory as the forests of Europe can no longer meet the demands of the population for timber, despite recently reported increases in site productivity (Spiecker et al., 1996). In this situation, the sustainability of society (i.e. Western society) may depend on the exploitation of alternative resources located, conveniently, on the other side of the world. It has already been made clear that this multifunctional view of the forest is not new. While the term `multiple use' was introduced at the beginning of the 1960s in the United States, the practice had been common in Europe for many centuries. In coppices, which still represent 50% of the forest area of Italy, timber was produced by standards (which also produced acorns and fodder), whereas the main crop was fuelwood and poles. Grazing was also common in many forest, sometimes with some degree of control (Zanzi Sulli, 1997). The world-wide loss of biological diversity, which is seen as a serious threat to development, was highlighted at the 1992 Earth Summit. The conservation of biodiversity, at population, species and gene level, has become a primary objective of the journey towards sustainability. Biodiversity is certainly an appropriate consideration in the context of natural forests or of managed forests derived from natural stands. However, the temporal and spatial application of the concept to the severely disturbed and often highly articial forests of Europe requires serious consideration and carefully planned research. The prevailing view of forestry in Europe at the end of the 20th century remains largely a pragmatic one. Priority, it is believed, should be given to the satisfaction of human demands; forests should remain a source of work and employment. Except in national parks, considerations of biodiversity or habitat

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conservation remain subordinate to this, although their importance is increasingly recognised. Somewhat in contrast to priorities of production or multifunctionality, Ciancio and Nocentini (1997) argue in a challenging and controversial paper that the forest should be viewed as a `subject with rights', not as an object or a machine to provide commodities. They refer to the `bio-economy' of forest systems, which they dene as the sum of the multiple relationships that are established between ecology, economics, ethics and the environment. The forest should then be viewed as a complex system whose health and wealth are measured by its biodiversity. This respectful attitude towards the forest has undeniable resonances in pre-Christian beliefs and in those of the Romantics. However, this new ethic, it could be argued, is an indulgence, a luxury affordable only by wealthy nations with easy access to the cheap wood of the third world. 9. Modern techniques in forest management Kimmins (1992) describes the third stage in the human interaction with the forest as the development of an ecological approach to silviculture and timber management. In fact, this stage could be sub-divided into an empirical and an ecological stage. In the empirical stage, which covers most of the period of modern forest management, the productive capacity of the site was assessed by observation of stand performance, and management was based upon experience gained through experimentation, observation and an understanding of spatial relationships within the stand. Yield models were developed using regression models based on eld measurement of growth parameters. Knowledge of the chemical, physical and biological processes within the stand which controlled productivity was acquired only slowly and was not incorporated in these growth models. In the context of current views on sustainable development and at a time when the dynamic nature of our forest resource is becoming ever more apparent to us, the shortcomings of models that are narrowly focused on yield prediction and based on historical performance become glaringly obvious. The demands of modern society require a new approach, embracing all the functions of the forest. The working assumption

underlying current models, that growth will continue in the future according to the patterns established in the past, has been invalidated by the recent studies of growth trends (Spiecker et al., 1996). Circumstances have changed. The steady state no longer exists, if it ever did. New models are required to simulate not only forest growth, but also the ecosystem processes that contribute to the sustainability of the forest. These models must be based upon ecosystem processes and the environmental factors that drive them. Research on such process based models is in progress (see, Refs. gren, 1996; A gren and Mohren and Burkhart, 1994; A Bosatta, 1996), but it will be some years before they can be used as management tools. When they are ready for use, another stage in the evolution of scientic forest management will have begun. 10. Evolution of forest ecosystem research 10.1. Outline of history Research that was recognisably ecological in character began in the late 18th and early 19th century, when attempts were rst made to characterise and classify biological communities (von Humboldt, 1806; Tamm, 1992). The term `ecology' itself was age, 1991). However, used by Haeckel in 1866 (Dele the greatest advances in ecosystem research have been made in this century , due mainly to the convergence of previously distinct scientic disciplines. Cajander's (Cajander, 1909) forest typology emphasised that biological communities could serve as indicators of site conditions. The new elds of plant geography and phytosociology emerged in the early 20th century as attempts were made to relate the distribution of plant communities to environmental factors (Schimper, 1898; Braun-Blanquet, 1932). At the same time, zooecologists demonstrated the nature of the basic processes within communities of organisms and the interchanges between them, and highlighted the importance of this in ecosystem function (Volterra, 1926; Elton, 1927; Chapman, 1931). In essence, a holistic view of plant and animal communities in their physical and chemical environments was developing, and this led to new concepts and terms such as `ecosystem' (Tansley, 1935) and `biogeocoenose' (Sukachev, 1959). Attention focused on the nature

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of the energy ow between organisms; the term `foodchain' was coined in 1926 (Anon., 1983b). The new botanical elds of ecophysiology and functional morphology began to nd use in ecosystem studies, and the concept of biological `succession', also developed in botany, was rapidly applied in ecological research. There have been similar developments in soil science (Ebermayer, 1876; Darwin, 1881; Romell, 1935; Sukachev, 1959) and in limnology (Thienemann, 1926), resulting in the elucidation of the systemic relationships between organisms and their abiotic environment. For the rst half of the 20th century, most of the progress in ecosystem research had been made through empirical, descriptive approaches. Since then, theoretically-based mathematical models have come into increasing use. This development was very much inuenced by Odum's (Odum, 1954) textbook `Fundamentals of Ecology'. Attempts were also made to place existing data on litter production and mineral cycling in a holistic context (Rennie, 1955; Rodin and Basilevich, 1968). Around this time, comprehensive forest ecosystem studies with a signicant experimental component were begun (Ovington, 1962; Tamm, 1975), and although useful information was obtained in such work, the need for thorough, interdisciplinary long-term studies became evident. The International Biological Programme (IBP) in the 1960s and 1970s was the rst international, interdisciplinary ecological research project. It was designed to quantify the productivity of natural and semi-natural terrestrial ecosystems. It was very successful, not least in that it established the necessity for and the potential of interdisciplinary and international collaboration in ecological projects. The work of Duvigneaud (Duvigneaud and Denaeyer, 1984), Ovington (1962) and Ellenberg et al. (1987) were also important in fostering interdisciplinary collaborations in eld research. Much national and international forest ecosystem research has also taken place within the framework of the Man and Biosphere (MAB) programmes (Krahl-Urban et al., 1988). In Sweden, the IBP was followed up by the SWECON project (Persson, 1980), which focused on the northern coniferous forest ecosystem. Studies of the forest decline phenomenon (based initially in Solling) spurred on many other ecosystem studies in Europe and North America.

Not all of the several disciplines that have contributed to the evolution of forest ecosystem research are at the same stage of development. This results in imbalances in the discipline as a whole. Soil chemistry and plant ecophysiology for example, are relatively well-developed, while biological processes and interactions at higher trophic levels are complex and less hrer, 1997). These shortcomings well understood (Fu need to be rectied if forest ecosystem research is to meet the demands placed upon it by the forestry sector and society. The development of accurate general theories and models of forest ecosystem function is very difcult, due not only to shortcomings in our understanding of some important ecosystem processes, but due also to the diversity of these ecosystems and their components. As a result, theoretical knowledge of the functioning of these ecosystems is still supercial and fragmented. Moreover, since knowledge of ecosystem function is so limited, it is even more difcult to explain ecosystem malfunctions. The forest decline phenomenon, mentioned in Section 1, is a good example. While the attribution of cause became the subject of heated, often ill-informed debate, the topic presented a new challenge for ecosystem research (Ulrich, 1987; Manion and Lachance, 1992), drawing scientists more to the ecopathological aspects of the forest and involving, as never before, theorists in the solution of applied problems. It emphasised the importance of small-scale spatial variations in biological and chemical properties for the understanding of interactions between organisms and soil (Andersson et al., 1997). 10.2. Mutual responsibilities The forest decline issue has contributed to a growing appreciation of the importance of natural resources and forests; in particular, it has generated the political will to search for better ways of using our forests. This broader view of the forest provides an additional incentive to protect the forests of Europe and to maintain their manifold functions. Sustainable management, understood as the skill of simultaneously utilising and conserving the forest resource, is acknowledged as the appropriate management strategy for the forests of Europe in the Helsinki Resolution H1 (Anon., 1993). The necessity for sustainable

E.P. Farrell et al. / Forest Ecology and Management 132 (2000) 520

15

development, proclaimed by scientists for years (e.g. Schimitschek, 1969), has become a canon of political philosophy, and it is the duty of forest scientists to provide the knowledge that will allow politicians to honour their commitment to sustainable forest management. Sustainable management requires the satisfaction of two sets of potentially conicting demands. To conserve the ecosystem, the forest manager requires a sufcient understanding of ecosystem processes and the ability to develop methods for appropriate manipulation of forest ecosystems, when required. However, forest management is of course also an economic activity, and so it requires an understanding of the socio-economic potential of forest ecosystems, together with the wisdom to moderate society's demands so that they do not exceed ecological capacity of the forest. Thus, forest ecosystem research provides the basis for ecologically intelligent management decisions. It can develop and evaluate technologies for forest ecosystem manipulation. It can assess the ability of ecosystems to resist and recover from socio-economic impacts. Thus, forest ecosystem research is far more than an academic endeavour; it is central to the development of sustainable forestry management. Success or failure in this new era in forestry depends to a high degree on the progress that can be achieved in forest ecosystem research. At the same time, governments are responsible for facilitating research. In particular they must recognise the necessity for long-term studies on forest ecosystem dynamics. Data collected over long time periods are necessary for the testing of ecosystem models. They are essential to the understanding of ecosystem function and thus to the development of systems for sustainable forest management. Take the simple example of sea-salt events in maritime regions. High inputs of sea-salts, which occur at relatively infrequent intervals, in association with major storms, cause perturbations in ionic ratios on the soil exchange complex which can result in short-term transport of acidity to streams with negative implications for sh populations (Wright et al., 1988; Hultberg et al., 1990). The presence or absence of forest cover, with its high interceptive capacity, inuences the magnitude of such events. Furthermore, the restoration of equilibrium in ionic

ratios on the exchange complex may take many years (Farrell, 1995). It is essential that site monitoring should encompass the complete cycle of such infrequent occurrences. 10.3. Forestry questioning science Forest management seeks scientic solutions to new practical problems. At times such as the present, tre of forestry and of forest manwhen the raison d'e agers is undergoing major change i.e. when a paradigm shift is occurring the shortcomings of current knowledge become apparent. Changing circumstances bring about new problems for forest managers (Piussi and Farrell, 2000). At present, scientists are discovering that their knowledge of processes fundamental to `new' functions of the forest is inadequate. Questions are arising concerning sustainability problems, from the regional and landscape scale down ttl and to the individual site and forest stand (Hu Schneider, 1997). Indeed, the entire concept of sustainable forest management, enshrined in the Helsinki Process, needs to be revisited and regularly reviewed. The principle is clear, but neither the scope nor the temporal aspects of its application have been adequately explored. Decisions must be made about how much forest area is necessary or desirable in order to guarantee regional sustainability, although even what constitutes a region is not immediately obvious. Also, cognisance has to be taken of which functions forest ecosystems should full. What priority, for instance, should be given to stabilisation and improvement of the social and economic infrastructure of a region, protection of natural resources (water catchment, farmland, avalanche barriers), multipurpose uses (e.g. simultaneously using land for timber production, soil protection, and recreation) or the amelioration of abandoned land. The principles of biodiversity conservation or `near-to-nature' forestry have to be made compatible with sustainable productivity (Andersson hrer, 2000). et al., 2000; Bengtsson et al., 2000; Fu Additional complications are introduced by the economically disadvantaged situation of most forest owners, who by circumstance, are constrained to implementing only the most cost-effective management strategies. Timber and bre production must remain economical, an interest which is best served by plantation forestry. All these problems are com-

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pounded by air pollution and, potentially, by global warming. Furthermore, conicts arise between different functions; for example, urban and industrial development ttl et al., often competes with nature conservation (Hu ki, 2000; Kra uchi, 2000; Scarascia2000; Kelloma Mugnozza et al., 2000). To resolve such conicts, management strategies have to be chosen carefully to full the desired forest function. The cost-to-benet ratio of the strategy has to be considered in this choice. Finally, a method to assess the success of the strategy is required. These all require an in-depth knowledge, both of forest ecology and of the natural circumstances and socio-economics of the locality. A large part of the challenge facing forest managers and researchers is how to reconcile the often-conicting demands of society, on the one hand, and forest owners, on the other. It is very often the demands of the populace at large (or of special-interest groups) that drive the political formulation of new landuse policies. The manager and the researcher must work together to assess the desirability and practicability of the new practices which result. The demands imposed by these policies can sometimes be unrealistic, since those who have inuenced policy may not be interested in objective truths. This places an additional responsibility on those involved in forestry to bring the perceptions of all concerned closer to reality. 11. Practical application of forest ecosystem theory Awareness is growing among scientists and practitioners that forest managers are failing to apply much of the scientic knowledge gained from forest ecosystem research. This `transfer question' deserves the particular attention of both researchers and policymakers. Hodge (1997) provocatively states that ``ecological knowledge is only valuable to the extent that it results in practical improvements in the sustainable management of forests.'' He also believes that ``all major forest ecology research programmes should be demonstrably directed to gathering clearly dened information and to support the needs of end-users. It is therefore vital that forest ecologists understand and relate to, and are seen as credible by, forest managers and forest policy makers.'' Hodge (1997)

places this responsibility mainly on the researchers, not only to produce high-quality theoretical information but also to communicate it in plain terms. ttl and Schneider (1997) distinguish three major Hu sectors involved in the `forest discussion' to which forest ecosystem researchers must contribute their knowledge: (1) the forest management group; (2) the policy-making institutions; and (3) the interested public (including the media). Each sector has specic needs for information, which must be met by the research community. 1. The forest management group requires guidelines and clear advice on how to modify traditional management concepts and how to apply new ones. It also requires clear concepts for coping with critical environmental tasks (e.g. groundwater and soil protection or recultivation) and methods that allow multifunctional forest management. 2. Policy-makers must be kept informed about new developments in forestry in national and international markets. They also need ecologically wellfounded information concerning the potentials and limitations of forest ecosystems and the role of forests in the sustainable development of rural areas. They need methods to evaluate management concepts in the landscape and regional context. The harmonisation of the concerns of environmentalists with the needs of commercial forestry is also an important and difficult task. An aspect of ecology that is often overlooked is the continental and global consequences of shifting destructive exploitation of natural resources to remote regions (e.g. importing more timber from the third world). Policy-makers must address this exploitation and to do so they require, substantial support from the research community. An important contribution to resolving this problem would be the development of criteria for the certification of sustainably produced timber. 3. Since policy makers are strongly influenced by public opinion, it is imperative to provide ecologically sound information to the interested public and media. To support the development of European forestry in the sense of the Helsinki and Lisbon conferences, the community of forest ecosystem researchers must communicate more closely with end-user groups, perhaps

E.P. Farrell et al. / Forest Ecology and Management 132 (2000) 520

17

ttl and Schneider, 1997). Fig. 1. The Transfer Concept (Hu

according to the Transfer Concept shown in Fig. 1. This information transfer would have to be wholly supported by scientists, managers and policy makers if it is to remain flexible to changing conditions. Urgent practical questions and incorrect forest management strategies require swift and certain responses.

The efciency of such a `transfer concept' depends to a large extent on how fully researchers participate. Hodge (1997) asserts that, rstly, if scientists believe that the adoption of their ndings is important, the information must be translated into language that the intended user of the information can understand.

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Secondly, for suitable use to be made of research ndings, their relevance and practical importance must be clearly dened for the end-users. Thirdly, researchers have to deliver protocols for making decisions, as well as reliable and clearly dened methodologies, quantitative thresholds and standards. Finally, he states that the adoption of research ndings has a great deal to do with condence in and respect for the scientist or institute. As such, national and international networks (such as EFERN) are required in order to bring information-users and researchers into contact allowing a free exchange of ideas. This will encourage discussion embracing practical constraints and problems, and, on the one hand and research advances, on the other. To address the specic needs of foresters and policy makers, critical reviews and user-friendly processing of existing relevant knowledge would be an important rst step. Even if the information this yielded were incomplete and further research were required, it would still be a great improvement on the current situation. If the research community identies such an interchange as a task complementary to their current duties, it will be a decisive step towards the wise use of forests. 12. Conclusions The human impact on the forests of Europe has been profound. The nature, intensity and longevity of this impact and its consequences for the sustainability of present-day forests have varied with the land-use history, the climate and the soils of each region. Knowledge of this history and an understanding of potential ecological transformations can, at the very least, alert us to the complexity of interpreting the results of our research and an awareness of the limits of the sustainability of our modern forest ecosystems. The growth in our understanding of ecosystem function and the development of human attitudes towards the forest which have occurred simultaneously, have presented to researchers the challenge of effectively directing research activity to meet the changing needs of society. Indeed, this is one of the goals of EFERN: to identify within a pan-European context a manageable number of research subjects of particular importance for the protection and development of forests.

It is vitally important that the recognition of a new paradigm should not blind us to the value of past experience. The lessons of management and the lessons of past research are both highly relevant today, although viewed in a new perspective. Relevant also are the results of past studies, particularly long-term studies, despite possible shortcomings in their scope or methodology. However, this reliance on past experience does not absolve us from the responsibility to establish new long-term studies, however unproductive they might appear in a shorter time perspective. Efcient utilisation of intellectual and physical resources demands that we continue to build on past experience and resist the temptation to, once more, reinvent the wheel. The related challenge facing the researcher, that of effectively transmitting the results of research to the end user is almost as great, such is the range of interpretations of modern research ndings and the diversity of the end-users. It is only by deepening our knowledge of the past, accepting the challenge of the present and acknowledging that we as researchers have also a responsibility to communicate with users, that we can foster the growth in wisdom which is fundamental to the wise use of Europe's forests in the next millennium.

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