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Research article2012Peer reviewedOpen access

Retention Forestry to Maintain Multifunctional Forests: A World Perspective

Gustafsson, Lena; Baker, Susan C.; Bauhus, Juergen; Beese, William J.; Brodie, Angus; Kouki, Jari; Lindenmayer, David B.; Lohmus, Asko; Martinez Pastur, Guillermo; Messier, Christian; Neyland, Mark; Palik, Brian; Sverdrup-Thygeson, Anne; Volney, W. Jan A.; Wayne, Adrian; Franklin, Jerry F.

Abstract

The majority of the world's forests are used for multiple purposes, which often include the potentially conflicting goals of timber production and biodiversity conservation. A scientifically validated management approach that can reduce such conflicts is retention forestry, an approach modeled on natural processes, which emerged in the last 25 years as an alternative to clearcutting. A portion of the original stand is left unlogged to maintain the continuity of structural and compositional diversity. We detail retention forestry's ecological role, review its current practices, and summarize the large research base on the subject. Retention forestry is applicable to all forest biomes, complements conservation in reserves, and represents bottom-up conservation through forest manager involvement. A research challenge is to identify thresholds for retention amounts to achieve desired outcomes. We define key issues for future development and link retention forestry with land-zoning allocation at various scales, expanding its uses to forest restoration and the management of uneven-age forests.

Keywords

biodiversity; ecology; conservation; forestry

Published in

Bioscience
2012, Volume: 62, number: 7, pages: 633-645 Publisher: AMER INST BIOLOGICAL SCI

      SLU Authors

    • Gustafsson, Lena

      • Department of Conservation Biology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

    Associated SLU-program

    Forest
    Biodiversity
    SLU Future Forests

    Sustainable Development Goals

    SDG15 Life on land

    UKÄ Subject classification

    Ecology
    Environmental Sciences
    Forest Science

    Publication identifier

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/bio.2012.62.7.6

    Permanent link to this page (URI)

    https://res.slu.se/id/publ/41109