Planted forests appear as key ecosystems for achieving global sustainable goals, providing timber resources, sequestering carbon, and restoring degraded ecosystems. The majority of planted forests are managed as monocultures for timber production, thus being usually poorer in biodiversity than natural forests. However, planted forests can also help in restoring and maintaining biodiversity when biodiversity conservation strategies are integrated into forest management. To contribute to international conservation objectives while maintaining timber production functions, planted forests are increasingly required to meet sustainable forest management principles. As a result, forest managers are progressively asked to change their silvicultural practices to improve stand biodiversity. Besides its importance for the conservation of species, biodiversity may have positive effects in sustaining many ecosystem functions, e.g. primary production, nutrient cycling, trophic interactions (Messier et al.2022), contributing to the overall resilience of forest ecosystems to the biotic and abiotic stresses induced by global change.
Biodiversity is usually measured and monitored in the field using indicators. Biodiversity indicators can be many and very context-specific, but general indicators and international principles exist; for example those specified in sustainable forest management certification schemes. However, these indicators tend to focus on biodiversity per se (for example, tree species diversity), without explicitly linking to their potential to deliver ecosystem functions and services important in planted forests (for example, a higher resistance to pests thanks to the biological control of natural enemies inhabiting mixed forests, Jactel et al. 2021). While there is a wealth of research on the multiple benefits of diverse planted forests, the societal views around the relevance, meaning, and use of common indicators of biodiversity in planted forests have not been taken into account. Considering how stakeholders perceive indicators of biodiversity and understanding the challenges in their use can influence their monitoring in the field and ultimately, the sustainable management of planted forests themselves.
The aim of BIOFUN (funded by IEFC Network fund 2025 under the Capacity Building activities) is to explore the functional perception of common indicators of biodiversity in planted forests. An online questionnaire, targeted at forest managers and forest scientists, was designed to explore the common perception about the value and the functional link of biodiversity indicators in planted forests, what are the major barriers to their use, and what solutions exist to facilitate the integration of biodiversity into planted forest management.
BIOFUN results will be presented during the IEFC General Assembly on 30 June 2026.
Laure Dangla – French Forest Technological Institute FCBA & Elena Gazzea – University of Padova, Italy
References :
Jactel, H., Moreira, X. & Castagneyrol, B. (2021). Tree diversity and forest resistance to insect pests: Patterns, mechanisms, and prospects. Annu Rev Entomol, 66, 277–296.
Messier, C., Bauhus, J., Sousa-Silva, R., Auge, H., Baeten, L., Barsoum, N., et al. (2022). For the sake of resilience and multifunctionality, let’s diversify planted forests! Conserv Lett, 15, e12829.