Naturnaher Waldbau: gestern, heute, morgen | Near-Natural Silviculture: Past, Present and Future

Abstract

Semantically speaking, the term «near-natural» has found its way into the language because of a humanist approach to nature, namely, how nature relates to culture and mankind; this is in contrast to more fundamental ideologies where nature alone is the central focus.The Swiss approach to this kind of silviculture, expounded by Schädelin and Leibundgut, has been a recognised school of thought in Switzerland for over 70 years. It advocates an all-encompassing outlook on forest management, and is a more comprehensive method than being restricted by one particular silvicultural technique. It is a liberal, pragmatic form of forest utilisation, which promotes not only renewal on a tree-by-tree basis (plentering), but also the renewal and growth of trees in discrete generations using progressive group felling; all this with the same goal in mind, that is, the creation of structured mixed forest.The following six principles characterise this approach: use of local yield potential; silvicultural intervention combining timber use and tending goals; continual renewal; maximising the use of mixed tree populations; use of natural regeneration; and a liberal felling policy. The procedure is characterised by the liberal felling policy, which can be used on a per-situation basis to decide which felling technique should be used.Near-natural silviculture is a direct response to new demands which consider the forest as having its own living space. However,the main challenge for Swiss forestry today lies more in resolving its economic problems rather than improving its proximity to nature. Liberalisation of trade has placed the viability of wood production in a precarious situation. Future silviculture must be more cost-efficient, and must be based on biological rationalisation. This requires a fundamental shift in silviculture towards a less intrusive policy which relies more on natural automation than in the past. It must also focus on individual trees and situative interventions, rather than focusing on a stand scale; this allows varying development potential of individual trees to be taken into consideration. In summary, real multipurpose use calls for flexible solutions, which can integrate silvicultural interventions on a much more varied scale than in the past.