More than 74% of all European forests are even-aged and (in most cases) managed primarily for timber production. And despite being rich in biodiversity and ecological resilience, just one-quarter of the continent’s forests are close-to-nature or unmanaged. That is according to a new study, Mapping Forest Management Regimes in Europe, published in the Forest Ecology and Management journal last week.
Led by Niek Scherpenhuijzen, from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam), researchers have mapped the different forest management regimes that dominant across the continent: “Our map depicts the spatial distribution of five forest management classes with different objectives (from unmanaged forests to very intensive forestry), highlighting distinct regional patterns across the continent,” the researchers said. “(And whilst) unmanaged forests are mostly located in Northern Europe, intensive forestry (largely dominates) in Portugal, Galicia, and Gascony,” they said.
Commenting on the study, Philippe Birker, who through Climate Farmers has been working to scale up regenerative agriculture in Europe, said the research points to a fatal flaw in Europe’s current policies on forests, which, by and large, incentivise wood production over regeneration: “Most forests in Europe are not wild,” Birker said. “They are basically monoculture plantations (where eucalyptus and spruce dominate). Nature thrives in diversity, and since knowing this, every time I look at a forest of all the same trees and the same age, I feel sad rather than happy.”
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The new study comes days after Wood Central revealed that a majority of the 27 EU agricultural ministers voted against introducing long-term national forest plans—a key part of the EU’s Forest Strategy for 2030. Instead, it has voted in favour of a “simplified” EU-wide forest monitoring framework, which will make national monitoring the starting point for all EU-level policy-making decisions on forests—a policy that has long been favoured by member states that rely heavily on intensive forestry.
For more information: Niek Scherpenhuijzen, Thales A.P. West, Niels Debonne, Saskia Oostdijk, Patricia Adame, Rasmus Astrup, Peter H. Verburg, Mapping forest management regimes in Europe, Forest Ecology and Management, Volume 594, 2025, 122940, ISSN 0378-1127, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2025.122940.
