Europe: the forest continent
Gert-Jan Nabuurs
Professor European Forest Resources and Coordinating Lead Author 6th IPCC Report
Europe is not really known as THE forest continent. Still it is, with 37% of the land covered by forests, comprising 227 million ha (close to the size of Brazilian Amazon). Statistically things do not look too bad: Europe has been building up more and more wood per hectare, more than ever since Medieval times. And the forest area is still increasing.
These forests - practically all managed- are enormously important for the wellbeing of the citizens, as a place for relaxation and tourism, for biodiversity protection, soil and water protection, mitigating climate change and for production of renewable resources; the EU alone produces some 20% of industrial roundwood worldwide.
Still there are large challenges. The biodiversity is modestly stable, disturbances are increasing, harvesting has gone up some 10% and is in some regions high. The carbon sink is quickly saturating. The latter we saw already starting in early 2010s. First signs of carbon sink saturation in European forest biomass | Nature Climate Change.
Further, the governance of these forest is highly complex and most of the 16 million private and public owners can hardly make a financial income out of their forests.
Therefore, to address these issues of biodiversity, climate and wood provision we launched #climatesmartforestry for the first time in 2015 at COP21.
Forests | Free Full-Text | By 2050 the Mitigation Effects of EU Forests Could Nearly Double through Climate Smart Forestry (mdpi.com)
and developed an EU network: www.climatesmartforestry.eu
To carry this forward we are improving our European analyses through high resolution modelling, based on ~ 300,000 national forest inventory plots data derived from, and together with eighteen EU countries.
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For further reading and info:
Sara Filipek , Sven van Baren , Sietse van der Woude , Jakob Derks , Marnix van de Sande , Eva Meijers , Mart-Jan Schelhaas, Igor Staritsky , Ajdin Starcevic , Nicola Bozzolan , Marco Patacca , Louis König , Silke Jacobs , Niamh Kelly , Bas Lerink , Eric Arets
I’m curious how you determined that 227 million ha is the most forest on any continent? Canada has 362 million ha and we’re only one part of North America. https://natural-resources.canada.ca/our-natural-resources/forests/state-canadas-forests-report/how-much-forest-does-canada-have/17601
Developing high-impacts projects for a more resilient world 🌱🌊 🏞
1yI can’t say that the landes monoculture pine landscape is a true forest though…
Working towards potential. From where we are with what we have and the people that are present.
1yGary Newman James Moxey Katherine Giles
CEO Built by Nature
1yMona Menadi
Professor Emeritus, University of British Columbia
1yGiven our experience in Canada, it would be safe to assume more severe natural disturbance in future forest planning. This may mean to focus should not just be on carbon sink saturation, instead it could be on getting the balance you desire on stocks and sinks while producing more material to replace fossil fuels. Climate smart forestry has to include these three elements, while ensuring biodiversity, water and people are all incorporated.