📋 Tender Overview
Forests cover approximately 30% of global terrestrial land (IPCC 2007). In addition to the production of wood, forests act as reservoirs of biodiversity and provide a wide range of important ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration, regulation of water flow and protection against soil erosion, among others. They also provide important cultural services and are aesthetically and socio-economically valuable as recreational and educational areas. Many of these services, as well as the underlying biodiversity, are potentially harmed by the abandonment of silvicultural practices. In this sense, among the main abiotic threats to European forests are fires (especially in the Mediterranean area), challenge aggravated by climate change and recurring periods of severe drought (European Forests 2020). Considering a change in forest management strategies in Europe is especially timely from an ecological and economic point of view. In many regions of Europe, timber prices and therefore plantation profitability have fallen in a long-term perspective. Silvicultural practices have been minimised, at the same time that agricultural activity is being abandoned in a general way, with what all this means is an increase in the biomass susceptible to burning. Promoting silvopastoral practices such as control of pyrogenic biomass can become an opportunity for landowners to maintain the profitability of plantations, while diversifying their economy, and leads to the conservation of biodiversity that guarantees the multifunctionality of forests and improves the provision of goods and services. However, to make the most of these changes, it is vital to better understand how biodiversity and ecosystem services are affected by the composition and management of systems.
