Assessing forest integrity and naturalness in relation to biodiversity

Assessing forest integrity and naturalness in relation to biodiversity

Descripción

Until recently, efforts at assessing and monitoring forests have focused on the amount (area) of forest remaining and/or its standing timber volume. Increasingly the multiple benefits and functions of forests, including provision of non-wood forest products, hydrological functions, carbon sequestration and biodiversity protection have been recognised, and their consideration in forest assessment has been recommended. There is now a perception that not all forests are equal, whether it be for tim ber production or for conservation of biodiversity. The international community has placed a high priority on assessing and monitoring the capacity of forests to provide any given range of services and conveying this information to policy and decision-makers and the general public (Nyyssonen & Ahti 1996). In this paper we discuss: • ways in which the capacity of forests to maintain their original biodiversity can be assessed at broad geographical scales; • the problems inherent in such as sessments; • the most useful ways of presenting the results, and • steps that need to be taken to ensure effective monitoring in the future.