Structural, compositional and functional aspects of forest biodiversity in Europe

This paper aims at providing a comprehensive baseline assessment of the variety of forests in Europe - for a wide readership including politicians, environmentalists, foresters and researchers. Despite the lack of a universally accepted definition of biodiversity, a finite list of biodiversity indicators and the lack of "perfect" data, a pragmatic approach for assessing forest diversity across Europe by using existing data sets was taken. The study attempts to do justice to forest biodiversity as a multidimensional issue and contains a broad analysis of structural, compositional and functional aspects. Internationally comparable data, and in particular, the latest results from the Temperate and Boreal Forest Resources Assessment of the UNECE and FAO, have been used. Examples of the aspects included in this paper are: Natural and protected forests; structurally diverse forests such as mixed species and uneven-aged forests; estimations of the numbers of vascular plants, birds and mammals residing in forests, as well as continuous processes, natural disturbances and anthropogenic influences. The challenge of biodiversity monitoring and protection, and the way to tackle and improve the current practices, are also discussed.