Excluding small areas from felling will not ensure the survival of all plants and animals that live in the forest. Some species require larger areas. This means that nature conservation must be planned from a landscape perspective, which is why we establish ecological landscape plans.
The FSC® standard stipulates that at least 5% of the total forest holding must be set aside as a fully protected area. An overview of our ecological landscape plans shows that we fulfill this requirement.
In our ecological landscape planning (ELP), we set aside conservation areas. These are areas that are larger than about one hectare, where harvesting has been excluded or postponed, or that are managed with alternative methods.
We also try to link the untouched forests in a network to provide natural pathways for animals and plants, such as corridors along bogs and streams.
Restore forest environments
Since the forests have been managed for such a long time, some forest landscape environments are now rare. We are therefore trying to restore the rare environments that are essential for the survival of some plants and animals. These include woodland that has burnt, since forest fires are now rare and quickly extinguished, as well as hardwood forests.
A living document
The ecological landscape plans are living documents that can be changed. If we discover new significant areas, they must be added to the landscape plans. At the same time, other areas are removed if they lose their value for some reason, or are no longer considered sufficiently significant.
The purpose of these changes is to optimize the nature conservation process.