RESONATE partners participated in a recent study on the styles defining the harvesting of wood in Europe’s forests. In particular, Mart-Jan Schelhaas from Wageningen Environmental Research Institute and Georges Kunstler from INRAE, were among the experts who contributed to the paper Understanding Europe’s Forest Harvesting Regimes – Suvanto – 2025 – Earth’s Future – Wiley Online Library
In cooperation with more than 15 other researchers, Mart-Jan and Georges carried out a comprehensive study of how harvesting is undertaken across all major forest types across Europe. The study spans 11 countries and relies on information from a pan-European dataset containing data from 182,649 permanent plots of national forest inventories altogether. The analysis encompassed:
- a characterisation of harvest regimes through the spatial frequency and intensity of harvest events;
- an examination of the links to potential drivers of harvest, including the pre‐harvest forest structure and composition, climatic, topographic and socio‐economic factors as well as past natural disturbances.
Reference:
Suvanto, S., Esquivel-Muelbert, A., Schelhaas, M.-J., Astigarraga, J., Astrup, R., Cienciala, E., Fridman, J., Henttonen, H.M., Kunstler, G., Kändler, G., König, L.A., Ruiz-Benito, P., Senf, C., Stadelmann, G., Starcevic, A., Talarczyk, A., Zavala, M.A., Pugh, T.A.M. (2025) Understanding Europe’s Forest Harvesting Regimes. Earth’s Future 13, e2024EF005225. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2024EF005225
