Europe

Abstract

Forests and other wooded lands cover about a third of the European land area and are therefore a characteristic element of the continent’s natural and cultural landscape. Woodland has always provided people with economic, social and environmental products and services. Indeed the history of Western civilisation would be dramatically different without the multiple benefits forests provided to society. However, the current distribution and composition of forests in most parts of Europe reflect the profound cumulative impacts of many centuries of land use change and forest management. While in many cases the loss of biodiversity of cultural landscapes we observe today is closely related to modern exploitation strategies, very often this situation is connected with changes in traditional agricultural systems and the abandonment of traditional land management practices.

In this chapter, we examine the principal factors responsible for the development of locally adapted technologies and traditional forest management practices used historically to sustain the long-term availability of forest resources through generations. The chapter also considers the influences of science and modern forestry on the development of cultural landscapes. A central part of the chapter considers the relevance of traditional forest-related knowledge to current debates about sustainable forest management. Inclusion of traditional forest-related knowledge within formal scientific forestry is considered a necessary step to maintain an important part of the European cultural heritage. Such knowledge is also regarded vital for the development of an effective approach to maintaining the ecological balance of European forests and for securing the sustainable development of rural areas in Europe.