Integrating nature and people in European forest management: what is the state of nature conservation and role of participation?

Forest biodiversity can be retained by setting aside protected forest areas for nature conservation or by integrating conservation measures in managed forests. Societal demands towards forest ecosystem services have changed in favour of conservation ideas, and there is a move towards more participatory forest policymaking. This paper investigated the relation between participatory decision-making and forest management developments within twelve European countries. We assessed a) the development of integration and segregation of nature conservation in forest management and the wider forest landscape, and b) how different groups participate in forest-related policy and management planning. Methodologically, we combined natural and social science to explore if the link between the two could be assessed by means of a multi-expert and multi-disciplinary assessment. We concluded that, in the twelve studied territories, integration of nature conservation in forest management was the dominating paradigm, while there is a simultaneous increase in both the areas set aside for nature conservation and the felling to increment ratio. At the same time, there was a noticeable increase in the attention given to nature conservation aspects in the formulation of forest policy. However, the relationship between participation in forest policy development/implementation and integrating nature conservation into forest management was found to be complex. We proposed directions for future research in this domain.