A major shift to the retention approach for forestry can help resolve some global forest sustainability issues

D LINDENMAYER; J FRANKLIN; A LOHMUS; S BAKER; J BAUHUS; W BEESE; A BRODIE; B KIEHL; J KOUKI; G MARTÍNEZ PASTUR; CH MESSIER; M NEYLAND; B PALIK; A SVERDRUP-THYGESON; J VOLNEY; A WAYNE; L GUSTAFSSON

Conservation Letters

Wiley Periodical Inc.

Año: 2012 vol. 5 p. 421 - 431

1755-263X

Approximately 85% of the global forest estate is neither reserved nor dedicated to intensive wood production (e.g. plantations) and 2 billion ha, or 55%, of the global forest estate is recognized as being managed for multiple environmental, economic, and cultural values. Given the spatial extent of unreserved forests, ways must be found to sustain their multiple values and to prevent the annual conversion of ~14 m hectares of native forest to other uses like agriculture. However, Oongoing steep declines in forest biodiversity and depletion of forest carbon stocks clearly demonstrate that the ecologically sustainable management of native forests remains a major global challenge. In this paper, we argue that a key part of such management should be the use of the retention approach in forest harvesting. The retention approach is a method of logging in which selected structures and organisms of the original forest are targeted for long-term retention at the time of harvest and are not removed in future logging operations. The retention approach attempts to promote the integration of environmental, economic, and cultural values and is broadly applicable to tropical, temperate and boreal forests, adaptable to different arrays of management objectives, and appropriate in different societal settings. The adoption of the retention approach globally would be one of the most significant changes in management practice since the onset of industrial forestry 150 years ago.