Forest function and role
The international community has acknowledged the function that
forests have in protecting the global and local environment and has
given them a key role in environmental policy implementation
strategies. These include mitigating climate change, conserving
biodiversity, combating desertification, reclaiming the environment
and preserving the landscape.
The earth’s biosphere has a fundamental role in the global
carbon cycle, exchanging large quantities of carbon with the
atmosphere. Through photosynthesis, plants capture large masses of
CO2 from the atmosphere. Part of this is released through breathing
while another part is kept in the epigeal and hypogeal biomass of
forests, as well as in the bedding and soil. Forest resources are a
key element in the global carbon cycle because they extend over 3.9
billion hectares, which is about 30% of the earth’s surface
(FAO, 2001). They are an immense carbon reserve. Among all the
existing ecosystems, forests are those which have the highest
quantity of carbon for each surface unit. A great number of studies
have suggested the prospect of reducing the accumulation of CO2 in
the atmosphere through forest activities. These clearly show
the decisive role that forests can play in regulating the
atmospheric concentration of CO2 and providing other environmental
benefits at the same time, such as water regimation, soil
protection and biodiversity preservation and enrichment (IPCC,
2000).
The Kyoto Protocol acknowledges the important role that forests and
agricultural land have in climate change mitigation strategies
(Brown et al., 1996; Binkley et al., 2002). It mainly provides
three category options:
- creation of new forests
- appropriate management of existing forests and agricultural
land
- utilization of biomass in replacement of fossil and other
mineral sources.
Furthermore, due to their spatial and structural variety, forest
ecosystems are generally known to have a high biodiversity and
complexity level. Indeed, they should not be considered a simple
collection of species since their interactions take place in an
infinite number of processes and ways.These include mechanisms like
predation, competition, parasitism, mutualism, etc.
Forests are also an important place to conserve and increase
biodiversity. Managing forest areas correctly and preserving their
biodiversity, making them productive and resilient, is therefore
important. It is often erroneously believed that only conventional
or imaginary forests (i.e. a boreal spruce forest or an Apennine
beech wood or an oak copse) carry out these functions. In actual
fact, even the less developed or degraded forms of forest (such as
the savannah, Mediterranean bush and other forest forms like the
wooded buffer zones) can carry out the same functions and also be
defined forests. These also act as ecological corridors which are
able to connect different ecosystems and carry out important
cultural functions, enhancing the aesthetical value of
environments, protecting residents from noise and providing
privacy.
