Continuous Cover Forestry

The large-scale application of silvicultural systems has become a political reality in many parts of the world. This involves a gradual transformation of traditional silvicultural practice towards "continuous cover forestry" (CCF), also known as near-natural forest management, favouring mixed uneven-aged stands, site-adapted tree species and selective harvesting. Today, CCF systems are encountered in many parts of the world, but forest managers often lack the technical support for generating and evaluating treatment options for complex forest structures. Specific CCF-related resource assessment, forecasting and sustainable harvest control techniques have been developed, but details about their use are not widely known. The emphasis in this text is on quantitative methods and modelling.