Best Practice Knowledge Base
9.1 Strict forests reserves
National Park Schwarzwald, Germany © Hernán Serrano-León
Preserving ecosystems and strictly protecting conservation areas play a crucial role in supporting forest restoration efforts. These measures safeguard biodiversity and ecosystem services and allow natural succession based on natural tree regeneration. By minimizing human disturbance, such as deforestation, logging, and land conversion, protected areas allow forests to recover organically, enhancing soil health, water retention, and carbon sequestration. The selection of strictly protected forest reserves (SPFRs) focuses on three key aspects: space, ensuring biodiversity through spatial completeness and connectivity; time, emphasizing habitat continuity and persistence; and function, evaluating naturalness, rarity, and representativeness. These criteria, integrated into a unified framework, ensure SPFRs effectively support biodiversity conservation.
I. Scientific articles
| Nº | Title | Author | Year | Focus region | Language | Type | Summary | Link |
| 1 | Strict forest protection: A meaningful contribution to Climate-Smart Forestry? An evaluation of temporal trends in the carbon balance of unmanaged forests in Germany | Nagel et al. | 2023 | Germany | English | Observational study | Comparison of carbon storage capacity of unmanaged vs. managed forests | https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/forests-and-global-change/articles/10.3389/ffgc.2023.1099558/full |
| 2 | Formerly managed forest reserves complement integrative management for biodiversity conservation in temperate European forests | Leidinger et al. | 2020 | Europe | English | Observational study | Evaluates the contribution of strict forest reserves to biodiversity conservation | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320719313801 |
| 3 | Snags and large trees drive higher tree microhabitat densities in strict forest reserves | Paillet et al. | 2017 | France | English | Observational study | Compares abundance of microhabitat-bearing trees between managed forests and strictly protected forests | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112716312300?casa_token=nkwMpkpvIpMAAAAA:1M7qklsbfTCI2p1D2cdqxHB7fwiKu9I9FTkTJ7G-ERv3nBfozEeUmOzhjgzkkNN3KVnXP1TPag |
| 4 | Criteria to evaluate the conservation value of strictly protected forest reserves in Central Europe | Schultze et al. | 2014 | Europe | English | Conceptual review | Review of the criteria for selection of areas for strict forest protection | https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10531-014-0787-2?sa_campaign=email/event/articleAuthor/onlineFirst&error=cookies_not_supported&code=5d8acb08-db8a-48a7-996d-70fedd63a1fd |
| 5 | A new wilderness for Central Europe? — The potential for large strictly protected forest reserves in Germany | Brackhane et al. | 2019 | Germany | English | Descriptive study | Evaluates the potential for the establishment of strict forest reserves in Germany | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000632071831766X?casa_token=h2dBbsAlDCMAAAAA:GjzKt2oI1VvnYwqOTXFBmX0zji26_JWwECcB1Zwc-u1asWMim7WUs3ZSxTUs1Qrrk0qNBXtpIg |