Forests are sources of great biological diversity, economic potential, and cultural value. When forests exist near where people are living, they must be managed to protect these values. This is where sustainable forest management comes in, but what exactly does this term mean?
- Sustainable forest management is all the practices dedicated to continuing the flow of biodiversity and economic and cultural products and maintaining the value that a forest provides for generations to come.
So, the forest produces goods and services (material products, biological benefits, or nonmaterial services such as cultural value and beauty), and sustainable forest management is designed to maintain the production of these goods and services.
This article will cover the goal of sustainable forest management, as well as the principles that fit into these three pillars of forest management:
What is the Goal of Sustainable Forest Management and Why is it Important?
Sustainable forest management comes in to regulate the way that humans interact with the forest. Management practices are designed to find the balance between the economic productivity of the forest while maintaining the ecological and social value that the forest provides.
Deforestation is a top threat to forests worldwide today, and it is a great example of economic benefits being favored over ecological or social benefits. Logging companies practice unsustainable forestry that damages local habitats and ruins the social benefits of forests.
The goal of sustainable forest management is to manage forests in such a way that they can keep producing valuable goods and services for an indefinite time period. The benefits include:
- Improving the condition of forests
- Ensuring future generations can reap the benefits of forests
- Increasing the capacity of forests to produce goods and services
- Enhancing biological life
- Enhancing cultural value generated by forests
- Providing employment opportunities
- Increasing global forest cover
- Decreasing global pollution
Now that we know what sustainable forest management is, and why it’s important, let’s discuss the how–what are the principles of forest management? How are they executed?
Protecting Economic Productivity of Forests
Forestry is a huge global economic industry that many countries rely on to make money. This industry contributes to the local economy by:
- Prompting infrastructure building
- Creating jobs
- Increasing revenue
Sustainable forest management practices are used to ensure that the forest can sustainably produce timber to continually support the local economy. If forests are not managed sustainably, (i.e. if forests are clear cut) the industry will only be around for a brief period of time and will not be able to provide for the local community. Instead, sustainable forestry promotes forestry practices like:
- Shelterwood forestry
- Selective cutting
Both of these methods preserve the natural ecosystem and allow the forests to adjust to the trees being removed while still allowing local communities to continually profit off of wood sold from the forest.
Increasing and Maintaining the Social and Cultural Benefits of Forests
Along with providing economic stability and habitat for plants and animals, forests have massive social and cultural benefits associated with them including:
- Education
- Recreation
- Providing food and medicine
- Beauty
- Religious and spiritual associations
The principles of sustainable forest management that help to increase and maintain the social and cultural benefits of forests include:
- Making forests accessible to the local community
- Prioritizing the needs of the local community
- Including the local community in the decision-making processes of forest management
Preserving or restoring local access to forests is a high priority of sustainable forest management, and it’s why community-based forestry is so important. For a forest to be sustainably managed, the surrounding community should have the final say in any decisions made because they will be directly impacted by those decisions.
If forests are managed by the surrounding community, the social and cultural benefits of the forest can be maintained and balanced with the economic and ecological benefits.
Maintaining Forest Health and Biological Diversity
While social and economic benefits are important to sustainable forest management, neither of these types of benefits could exist without a healthy, biodiverse forest. We can look at ecological health and biodiversity as the “soil” from which the economic and cultural benefits “grow”.
There are many ways to measure forest health, but here are some components that scientists look to see in a healthy forest:
- Healthy, nutrient-dense soil
- Sources of clean and healthy water
- No human-made litter
- Few to no invasive species
- High plant, animal, and fungal diversity
Here are some methods employed by sustainable forestry that can restore or promote forest health:
- Planting native species
- Planting trees
- Invasive species control
- Decreasing forest fragmentation
- Regulating logging practices
All of these practices and more can be used to restore an unhealthy forest or to maintain a healthy one. The practices are used in tandem with those that promote economic productivity and community access to ensure that the forest can provide goods and services to the local community for generations to come.
Key Takeaways
- Sustainable forest management involves practices that maintain the health of the forest so it can continue to provide goods and services.
- Sustainable forestry aims to increase forest health while maintaining economic productivity and local access to forests.
- Sustainable practices are especially important as climate change and deforestation become worsening threats to forests.
- Economically, sustainable forest practices ensure that a forest can consistently produce economic value through ending practices like clearcutting.
- Socially, forests provide beauty, recreation, and spiritual associations. The social pillar of sustainable forestry aims to ensure that local communities have access to the forest.
- Ecological health is the foundational pillar of sustainable forest management. Without ecosystem health, economic and social benefits are non-existent. So, ecological restoration and conservation are of utmost importance in sustainable forest management.