Management of protection forests in the European Alps: an overview

Protection forests are forests that have as their primary function the protection of people or assets against the impacts of natural hazards. The main 'product' of these forests are standing trees which act as obstacles to downslope mass movements such as rockfalls, snow avalanches, erosion, landslides, debris flows, and floods. The protective effect of these forests is ensured only if the silvicultural system used and any natural disturbances that occur leave a sufficient amount of forest cover. Management has therefore to take a very long-term perspective. This paper presents an overview of the occurrence and delimitation, ecology, stand structures and dynamics, and resistance and resilience of protection forests in the European Alps, and of suitable silvicultural systems. Guidelines for managing protection forests, which were developed collaboratively by Swiss forest managers and scientists, are described as an example of standardized decision-making in protection forests. Future research on protection forests should be directed towards synthesising existing knowledge in the natural sciences, engineering, and economics.