Forests and the role of forests in the sustainable development of Europe

Forests cover large shares of the land area and fulfil multiple functions in ecological, economic and social dimensions (they comprise 192.6 million ha or 34% of the land area in the European region). Being part of historically developed cultural landscapes in Europe; forests are also a natural resource under long-term human management regimes, which besides protective functions primarily serve strong economic purposes, in particular a constant and profitable production of wood.

Wood resources in forests constitute the base for direct economic activity and employment in agriculture and forestry. Forest ownership is divided in public and private owners (estimated 11 million forest holdings in the EU; around 50% of Europe's forests are private property ). Many forest owners depend on their land and generate significant income from timber resources.

Wood is the major produce from forests and constitutes the primary raw material in a number of production chains of industries termed the `forest sector´. It incorporates forestry enterprises, raw timber processing industries and downstream manufacturing industries providing numerous wood and paper-based products to the end consumer. Clearly, employment and growth in these industries are directly linked to and highly dependant on the common resource wood.

The future development of Europe's forest and forest sector is influenced by several global trends:

1. Worldwide, a globally decreasing forest resource base has to supply for an increasingly larger population's demands: Due to the worldwide population growth, the global forest area per capita in hectare continues to decrease.
2. The total demand for wood material in Europe is estimated to increase substantially: On-going wood mobilization efforts are not likely to balance the emerging gap between supply and demand.
3. The role of wood as energy carrier will continue to increase at tremendous pace: Expected effects are a growing competition with material uses of wood and changes in wood production systems.
4. The global climate change will have yet unforeseen impacts on forest ecosystems, their management regimes and sustainable wood supplies: Climatic zonal shifts and increasing occurrence of disastrous turbulences will decisively alter the forests' structure, stability and productivity.

These major trends will in turn lead to i) a relative scarcity of the raw material wood and ii) dynamic structural changes in the forest sector. Wood production in Europe has therefore inevitably to take into account these major trends and adapt to them.

IN2WOOD's RTD questions

IN2WOOD responds to these trends, based on the context and needs of forestry in the regions.

The overall objective is to enhance WOOD PRODUCTION by developing new forest management systems considering ecosystem functions of the resource ‘forest’,

in particular:

• Factors and framework conditions for forest management  - Regional contexts are critical to forestry and need consideration in the adaptation of new approaches across regions.
• Adapted silvicultural systems for optimized wood production - In view of global climate change, more flexible systems for the management of storm-damage and calamities in forests and montane/alpine forestry are required.
• New technologies for innovative plantation forestry - New RTD in plantations and short rotation coppice seeks for systems and technologies that can serve purposes for energy forests, agroforestry and bioenergy.
• Mobilisation of wood resource potentials - Emerging mobilisation approaches comprise: new organizational forms and incentive systems of forest owners, partnerships with wood industries, and silvicultural and logistical optimization strategies.
• Non-Wood Forest Products and Services - NWFPs are often of special importance in rural contexts and offer particular market opportunities from a social forestry perspective.