of natural forest, illegal felling, increases in monocultural plantations, increases in serious fires and hunting activity in some countries, adverse effects of air pollution and more urban access into forest areas. Around 60% of Europe's forests are now degraded by the factors listed above (UNEP, 2002). This degradation trend may be reversing in some more developed countries (UK, Germany, some CEE countries ) with higher levels of legal protection than the rest of Europe (> 10% of area protected) and development of new plantations that alleviate pressure on natural forest. In the NAE region, Canada and CEE has the highest proportion of forest undisturbed by humans.
2.6.3 Forestry as an industry
Demand for forest products in NAE has dramatically increased since the World War II, especially for industrial wood, with consumption and production more than doubling between 1961 and 2004 (UNECE/FAO, 2003b). Demand and production of fuel wood has increased from 1990 and now exceeds 1960s levels, but is still only 20% of industrial wood production.
Because of this, the forestry industry has steadily grown over the past 50 years from a rural activity supplying urban areas with timber products to a major industry producing a wide range of added value products, especially wood-based boards where Europe is one of the world's major exporters. Not only has there been a significant rise in consumption of, and demand for, wood-based products derived from Europe, but there has also been a significant increase in the import of timber, especially fashionable tropical hardwoods, from other parts of the world, especially from Canada, S. America and the Far East. This import market has had an increasing impact on the forests of other continents and is an important factor driving forest loss in those areas. (FAO, Europa, UNECE).
2.6.4 AKST in forestry
In Western and Southern Europe the main focus of forestry science has changed recently from the traditional productiv-ist paradigm towards a scientific approach to sustainable multifunctional use, including the conservation of species associated with forests and the impacts of climate change. This trend is also found in parts of North America. Since the classification of American forests into ecoregions in the 1970s and 1980s (Bailey, 1980; Bockheim, 1984; McNab and Avers, 1994), there has been a change in forest management away from exploitation towards multifunctional sustainability (Johnson et al., 1999; Bosworth, 2004) focusing on four objectives; watershed health and restoration (USDA-USFS, 1999), sustainable forest management, public access and recreation. These topics form the framework for most forest research in NAE.
Since 1945 many new technologies have been increasingly applied to forest production, harvesting and processing. Increased pesticides use, especially on conifer plantation monocultures, has led to less insect and disease damage to forests. Drainage and ground preparation techniques have been adapted and scaled up from agriculture, resulting in conversion of more open uplands and wetlands to forest.
Even using native tree varieties and labor-intensive forestry systems, foresters in Europe and North America have |
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significantly increased productivity and production per unit area by employing new technologies for ground preparation (better drainage, fertilization and tree protection using physical and chemical means), planting technology using mechanical planters, improved management of plantations, advanced rapid timber harvesting and extraction machinery and high throughput processing (for paper, timber and board production). New harvesting technologies have increased harvest rates and result in a higher proportion of felled wood being processed, with less waste. For example, in Sweden the introduction of the chainsaw and mechanization of logging operations resulted in total forest work productivity increasing between 2.3 and 12.5 m3 per person-day between 1960 and 1990 (Axelsson, 1998). Between 1970 and 1990, the degree of mechanization in final fellings increased from 25% to 85% and in thinning from zero to 60% (Frej and Tosterud, 1989).
The NAE timber industry also makes better use of fiber by-products (for board manufacture, insulation materials and fuel) than before 1945, when many of these products were simply burnt in the open on site. Much of this development was initiated from the state forest services, both in terms of funding and technical expertise. State services continue to have a major input into technology development, especially in the CEE countries, but in West and South Europe, forest technologies are dominated by a viable industry that exports machinery and knowledge for timber production and processing worldwide. In common with other manufacturing industries, production of machinery used in forestry and wood processing is increasingly shifting to the Far East, a trend that is set to continue.
The negative impact has been that the larger scale mechanization has lead to a major decline in the number of forest workers. Another negative consequence is that in systems such as short rotation forestry, soil compaction can be an important issue when considering the mechanization. This can have a particular impact where the crop is harvested in the winter months on wet soils, as can be the case in soils of Northern Europe. In these regions the crops are frequently grown on soil that is saturated during the winter months and soil damage is more likely to be significant (Culshaw and Stokes, 1995).
Unlike in agriculture, crop varieties used in plantations for commercial forestry are largely derived from selected wild stocks of trees, but not necessarily grown in their native region. Some of these are taken from stands known to grow well in the prevailing conditions and to produce good quality timber. Domestication of trees is still at a very early stage largely because selective breeding is more difficult with plants that have long generation times and that only exhibit desirable traits close to maturity, typically after several decades. Biotechnology and genomic knowledge is beginning to open up the possibility of true domestication of trees, partly by producing varieties with shorter generation times, but mainly through increasing knowledge of the genes responsible for desirable traits.
2.6.5 Forest institutions
Forest management in the United States and Canada has changed dramatically since 1945. In the United States, the Forest Service was formally established in 1905, assisting |