Hi Metodi,

I'm sure, you're aware that it varies from year to year ... the last "Report of state of forests" published by Polish National Holding (https://www.lasy.gov.pl/pl/informacje/publikacje/informacje-statystyczne-i-raporty/raport-o-stanie-lasow/raport-o-stanie-lasow.pdf/view) reports that in Poland in 2019 ca. 20% of wood was obtained by clear felling, which is 7,772,000 cubic metres and the total area of clearcuts was 32.1 thousand ha. Data for 2020 was not published yet.

Regards,

Bogdan

Hi Bogdan, this is really very helpful, thanks for your reply. Just two short questions of understanding: do the 20% clearcuts refer to the wood used on public lands only (managed by the State Forest Holding), and not to the remaining private lands? Are clearcuts from "sanitary fellings" (e.g., bark beetle, fires, storms) included in the 20%, or not? Thanks, and keep in touch, Metodi

Hi!

You can find some information in the paper

Article Next-generation information to support a sustainable course ...

And, maybe, you could find more in the raw data of the study. But unfortunately, the authors don't open the input data and the maps as they promise in the paper.

Hi Metodi!

For France, there is obviously a lack of recent and reliable figures on clear-cutting practices. In mainland France, a context one should keep in mind is a dominance of young, lightly managed smallholders forests in the picture. But clearcuts have been there for a while of course. In 1999, Barthod et al. estimated that out of the 100kha/yr flow of areas identified as massive cuttings, 30% were then falling in the "clear-cutting, followed by plantation" combo. NFI reports suggest that this percentage remained more or less steady until ~2015. We are now in different waters, due to rises in the harvest intensity AND in sanitary fellings.

An advocacy ENGO such as Canopée has made of clearcuts one of its hobbyhorses, highlighting the lack of definitions and measurements, and the issue of broadleaf-to-softwood-plantations conversions.

Meanwhile, state services have in most regions being able to set up near-real time monitoring workflows, based on Sentinel-2 remote sensing data. But as far as I know, these efforts remain uneven, and are a fortiori not usable for nation-wide assessments.

regards,

http://documents.irevues.inist.fr/bitstream/handle/2042/5456/469_486.pdf?sequence=1

Dear Baptiste, thank you very much for your very useful answer! Glad to join forces again for the next EU project activities . Best, Metodi

Hello,

I sent you the description and files on priv. Maybe they'll be helpful.

Dear Radoslaw, thank you very much for your reply and information. Best, Metodi

Hi Metodi,

For Portugal clear cutting forestry reports are not of my knowledge. In this country it is always applied to productive eucalyptus (E. globulus mainly) stands and maritime pine (Pinus pinaster) stands which are the majority of them. They cover, according to last inventory results 2015, about 48% of Portuguese forests, so it is possible to say that it is a good estimate of the proportion.

Best Regards, Rui

Dear Rui, thank you for your very useful feedback and estimates on Portugal. Best regards, Metodi

The question is a bit unclear. There are about 25 different types of felling in Latvia. If you mean percentage of regenerative fellings, then selective harvest is 17% by area during 5 recent years and 9% by volume. But if all clear-fellings and thinnings / selective harvests are considered, then non-clearfellings ar 60% by area and 38% by volume.

Thank you for your reply Andis.

Dear Metodi, for Slovakia, the official statistics is located in Green Report, e.g. here https://www.mpsr.sk/en/index.php?navID=17&id=75. Currently, we about 26% of forests are under clear-cutting system, rest is under shelter wood. Please see plot on page 31 to see the whole picture and more categories. Best,

One more recommendation, when you are comparing proportion of clear-cuts, you should also compare proportion of shade tolerant tree species. In Latvia there is only 1 shade tolerant species - Norway spruce, which can be regenerated using simple continuous forest cover approach (about 20% of forests). The rest of species requires openings of certain area, e.g. >0.1 ha to regenerate successfully.

Dear Maria and Andis, great thanks for your very useful feedback and information. Best regards,

Metodi

Dear Metodi,

despite Switzerland isn't EU27 member, it might be of interest. Clear cutting in Switzerland is not allowed per law but there is some "removal cuts" that have a similar character as a clear cut just with smaller areas.

See https://doi.org/10.21258/1742209 for more details

Hi Metodi,

for Sweden there's now data asa to the extent of continuous cover forestry, 644 000 ha per annum (Så stort är hyggesfritt skogsbruk | Skogen).

The extent of clear cutting is already available at the forest agency data pages

Hallo Metodi, im Österr. Waldprogramm https://info.bmlrt.gv.at/themen/wald/walddialog/dokumente/walddialog-kurz.html auf S. 48 findest du einige Zahlen zu Ö. LG, Stefanie

Dear Golo Stadelmann ,

thank you for your answer and further references. Switzerland is a great example of a regulation with a clear cut ban. It is also a EEA country worth of comparing with the EU-27 countries.

Just few questions of understanding:

- How small are the areas of "removal cuts"?

- Why do not they fall under the "clear cut" category and hence are allowed, while you say they have similar character as "clear cuts"?

Thanks, and best regards,

Metodi

Dear Ragnar Klas Henrik Jonsson ,

thanks for your answer and further information.

According to official statistics (https://www.slu.se/globalassets/ew/org/centrb/rt/dokument/skogsdata/skogsdata_2021_webb.pdf), the amount of the annual final (regeneration) fellings, and hence of clear-cuts was 209.000 ha or 53,7 Mio m3 in 2019 in productive forests outside formally protected areas.

Would you confirm this estimates?

Best, Metodi

Liebe Stefanie, Stefanie Linser ,

vielen Dank für Deine sehr hilfreiche Rückmeldung zum Anteil der Kahlhiebe in Österreich.

Liebe Grüße, Metodi

Yes, is the short answer!

Ragnar Klas Henrik Jonsson

Great, many thanks Ragnar!

Nothing really, glad if it's of some use!

Have a look at this paper:

Article Continuous cover forestry in Europe: usage and the knowledge...