Biodiversity conservation for climate adaptive forest restoration and reforestation

In almost all European forests, land use history is deeply embedded with a variety of effects on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Forest biodiversity is one of the six sustainability criteria in the Pan-European region. Forest management plays a crucial role in affecting vegetation diversity and the distribution of plant species in forest communities. These aspects need to be considered at all stages of forest management, from species selection to nursery cultivation of the plant material and on-site management across the developmental stages of the forest. Since the management (e.g., non-native tree plantations, salvage logging vs. no intervention) can cause spatial and microclimatic changes on a local scale, the outcome could be intensified effects of climate change in the landscape. Therefore, understanding the drivers and mechanisms behind forest biodiversity patterns is crucial for mitigating biodiversity loss from the local to the European level. For this reason, the present chapter focuses on underlining the key points of biodiversity, both regarding its role in ecosystems and the theoretical framework developed for defining and analyzing biodiversity. Furthermore, the chapter focuses on the impact of forest management activities on biodiversity in the forest ecosystems.