RESEARCH IN FOREST RESERVES AND NATURAL FORESTS IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES Country Reports for the COST Action E4: Forest Reserves Research Network Edited by Jari Parviainen, Declan Little, Marie Doyle, Aileen O'Sullivan, Minna Kettunen and Minna Korhonen EFI Proceedings No. 16, 1999 European Forest Institute European Commission European Cooperation in the Field of Scientific and Technical Research EFI Proceedings No. 16 Research in Forest Reserves and Natural Forests in European Countries Edited by Jari Parviainen, Declan Little, Marie Doyle, Aileen O'Sullivan, Minna Kettunen and Minna Korhonen Cover photo: Erkki Oksanen / METLA Layout: PihkaPojat Oy Printing: Gummerus Kirjapaino Oy Saarijärvi 1999 Publisher: European Forest Institute Series Editors: Ian Hunter, Editor-in-Chief Minna Korhonen, Technical Editor Brita Pajari, Seminar Co-ordinator Editorial Office: European Forest Institute Phone: +358 13 252 020 Torikatu 34 Fax. +358 13 124 393 FIN-80100 Joensuu, Finland Email: [email protected] WWW: http://www.efi.fi/ Disclaimer: The papers in this book comprise the country reports of the COST Action E4: For- est Reserves Research Network. They reflect the authors' opinions and do not nec- essarily correspond to those of the European Forest Institute. © European Forest Institute 1999 ISSN 1237-8801 ISBN 952-9844-31-X TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface ........................................................................................................ 5 Jari Parviainen Strict forest reserves in Europe – efforts to enhance biodiversity and strenghten research related to natural forests in Europe...................... 7 Georg Frank Austria ...................................................................................................... 35 Gerfried Koch Kris Vandekerkhove Belgium .................................................................................................... 55 Jens Emborg Denmark ................................................................................................... 73 Jari Parviainen et al. Finland ...................................................................................................... 83 Patric Falcone France ....................................................................................................... 99 Winfried Bücking Germany ................................................................................................. 109 Wolfgang Schmidt K. Kassioumis et al. Greece ..................................................................................................... 119 Péter Czájlik Hungary .................................................................................................. 133 Tibor Standovár Aileen O'Sullivan Ireland ..................................................................................................... 145 Fulvio Ducci et al. Italy ......................................................................................................... 163 Mirjam Broekmeyer The Netherlands ..................................................................................... 177 Bjørn Tømmerås Norway ................................................................................................... 195 Ana Almeida Portugal .................................................................................................. 203 Milan Saniga Slovakia .................................................................................................. 211 Jurij Diaci Slovenia .................................................................................................. 225 Ángel López Spain ....................................................................................................... 233 Jaume Serra Tor-Björn Larsson et al. Sweden ................................................................................................... 245 R. Popadyuk et al. Russia ..................................................................................................... 253 M. Morecroft et al. United Kingdom ..................................................................................... 267 List of Management Committee Members ............................................. 295 EFI Proceedings ..................................................................................... 301 PREFACE Natural and semi-natural forests mainly exist as forest reserves in different European countries. The occurrence of original forest structures has decreased during the last centuries. The political forum and the public have become aware of this decline. The high degree of biological diversity in these forests, the high potential of genetic variability, their naturnalness and uniqueness are important from the points of view of forest protection, forest management planning and silvicultural practices. International activities, such as the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, 1992, and the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe in Helsinki, 1993, and the follow-up of the Helsinki process for developing indicators and criteria for sustainable forest management, also underline these facts. The EU COST Action E4 “Forest Reserves Research Network” was launched on 11 November, 1995. The end of this Action is scheduled for 7 November 1999. Its objective is to create a European network of forest reserves in order to collect ongoing research and unify research methodologies, and create a central data bank for the exchange of research results. The following tasks are outlined: • to achieve a common understanding of definition, terminology and management approaches to forest reserves and other categories of forest protection, • to survey and analyse current information available on forest reserves and ongoing research, • to collect the published research reports on structure and forest dynamics in forest reserves, • to collect, compare and harmonise research methodology for monitoring the stand structure and changes, • to promote the establishment of a common permanent sampling plot system, and to create a data bank for the gathered information. To initiate scientific discussion and exchange of information, preliminary country reports were presented in the 2nd Management Committee meeting, which was held between 12-14 September, 1996, in Fontainebleau, France. These proceedings contain the final reports written and approved by the country delegates. Jari Parviainen et al. (eds.) Research in Forest Reserves and Natural Forests in European Countries EFI Proceedings No. 16, 1999 6 Research in Forest Reserves and Natural Forests in European Countries In addition to various approaches to research, the most important research reports, ongoing projects, research groups, institutions and research emphasis areas, these country reports also contain brief summaries about the historical perspectives of the establishment of forest protection areas and past milestones. January 1999 Jari Parviainen Chairman COST Action E4 STRICT FOREST RESERVES IN EUROPE -- EFFORTS TO ENHANCE BIODIVERSITY AND STRENGHTEN RESEARCH RELATED TO NATURAL FORESTS IN EUROPE Jari Parviainen Finnish Forest Research Institute Joensuu, Finland ABSTRACT Original forest structures are very rare in Europe. In 1995, COST Action E4: Forest Reserves Research Network was introduced by the COST Commission in order to promote co-ordination and enhance research in natural forests. The objectives are to create a European network of forest reserves, to collect ongoing research, to unify and standardise research methodology and to provide general access to a central data bank on forest reserves. In order to maintain forest biodiversity in Europe, it is necessary to protect totally untouched reserves and to apply nature-oriented silviculture in production forests. Natural forests are generally accepted as being a good model on which to base nature- oriented silviculture. There are still approximately 3 mill. hectares of natural forests left in Europe (1.7% of the total forest area). The widest, continuous natural forests can be found in Finland and Sweden and in remote mountainous areas of Central and Eastern Europe. Key elements of forest biodiversity have been identified, such as fire disturbance, dead wood component, etc., but their quantification is still very vague and speculative. The application of realistic nature-oriented silviculture requires a concerted effort to protect indigenous biodiversity, the influence of which has been underestimated in discussions on forest protection. Due to the wide variation of human impact on forests, fragmentation, the degree of ‘naturalness’ of forests, vegetation zones and tree species composition, the concept of nature-oriented silviculture in the Nordic countries differs markedly from that in Central Europe. In the boreal zone the main emphasis lies on maintaining biodiversity, whereas in Central Europe the goal is to manipulate forest stand development towards the potential, original forest cover. In Central Europe, production forests are mainly artificial through alteration and cultivation practices (50-70%), whereas production forests in Finland and Sweden are semi-natural; here between 70 and 75% of forests result from natural regeneration. Jari Parviainen et al. (eds.) Research in Forest Reserves and Natural Forests in European Countries EFI Proceedings No. 16, 1999 8 Research in Forest Reserves and Natural Forests in European Countries 1. INTRODUCTION Forestry and silviculture have attracted unprecedented public attention in the 1990s world wide and throughout Europe.