Theory and method of sustainable forest management

Abstract

Starting from the nineteenth seventies the way of looking at the forest has changed. It has been understood that the forest has an important role in making the present livable and the future possible. In these last years the forest has conquered a new cultural dimension. The forest is not a completely disposable asset and cannot be managed according to market economy; it isn't a simple group of trees with economic interest. The forest is a complex, autopoietic adaptive system that is capable of autonomous self-perpetuation and of subordinating structural changes to the conservation of its organization. Sustainable forest management must therefor be based on systemic silviculture, i.e. on «extensive silviculture», in harmony with nature.