What are the risks for forests and people?
Various natural and human events can mean losses, damage and difficult times for a forest or the people affected. Natural risks and crises include droughts, floods, fires, landslides, avalanches, storms, mass outbreaks of pests and diseases as well as snow and branch breakage. Man-made risks and crises include misjudgements and misconduct such as accidental damage during forestry work and forest visits or environmental pollution following improper plant protection measures, serious conflicts of interest marked by sabotage, criminal behavior or political upheaval, lack of coordination with the consequences of overexploitation, species extinction and climate change.
In sustainable forestry, these natural and human risks and crises are identified in advance and measures are weighed up in order to reduce or prevent the overall risk.
One way of doing this is through forestry planning as part of supra-regional spatial planning through to local land use planning. Here, all forest services are planned for long production periods and their implementation is controlled and checked. The legally binding forest planning for periods of 10 - 20 years is fundamental. In everyday forestry work, decision cascades help to weigh up forest protection and forest construction measures in order to minimize or prevent risks and crises.
Communication between all forest users in the broadest sense is fundamental to all measures. In a constant exchange, it is important to coordinate their demands and the various measures, always with a view to the capacities and capabilities of their forest. Communicating the measures and their risks should help to create understanding, acceptance and support among the population in order to prevent or shorten crises of any kind. Forestry and communication measures help to reduce the risks for the forest and the people.