Integrative Forest Management Guidelines
P1. Retention of habitat trees, special habitats, and dead wood
The retention of habitat trees, dead wood, and valuable forest habitats is a key component of integrative forest management, helping to maintain the continuity and connectivity of habitat structures across the landscape. Habitat retention is important for the conservation of forest-dwelling species, reduces the impacts of forest management on sensitive ecosystems, such as aquatic habitats, and improves the resilience of managed forests.
P1-A1 Habitat tree retention
Habitat tree retention involves deliberately retaining living and standing dead trees during harvesting to provide important habitats and ecological functions. Habitat trees help conserve forest biodiversity and contribute to the development of more structurally complex forest stands.
P1-A1 Deadwood retention
Deadwood is an essential component of forest ecosystems, supporting biodiversity and a range of ecological processes. Maintaining sufficient amounts and a diversity of deadwood types is therefore an important consideration in integrative forest management.
P1-A2 Retention level across the landscape
Retention levels across the landscape refer to the amount, distribution, and spatial arrangement of retained trees, habitat trees, deadwood, and retention patches across multiple forest stands.
P1-A3 Protection of valuable habitats
Protection of valuable habitats ensures the long-term conservation of forest areas with particularly high habitat value. Integrative forest management highlights this as a key approach alongside other retention actions across the forest landscape.
P1-A4 Integration of forest reserves
Forest reserves are areas set aside from active management to protect biodiversity and allow natural ecological processes to occur. They provide important habitats while safeguarding ecosystem functions such as carbon storage and water protection.