Critères et indicateurs de gestion durable des forêts: La biodiversité

Abstract

As the notion of sustainable forest management has developed, a broad range of criteria and indicators for assessing the status of forests has been established. Many of these criteria and indicators relate to the capacity of forest habitats to accommodate and maintain considerable biodiversity while others relate directly to the presence of species or groups of species. As a result of the work done on the latter, there has been growing interest in the significance of biodiversity for forest sustainability, largely echoing the theoretical developments in ecology. Are there key species, umbrella species that guarantee the sustainability of the overall forest ecosystem ? Is maximum biodiversity the appropriate goal ? What state should be used as a baseline to assess the ecological sustainability of a forest ? How is ecological sustainability defined ? This article presents the major indicators relating to the biodiversity of plant and animal species. We discuss their ecological significance and operativity for management purposes.