MONET 2030: Sustainable wood harvest

SDG 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

Goal description

[…] Deforestation and desertification – caused by human activities and climate change – pose major challenges to sustainable development. […] »

Excerpt from Swiss target 15.2: Forestry is efficient and close to nature, respecting all three dimensions of sustainability in equal measure (environmental, social and economic). All forest functions are fulfilled equally. The forest maintains its overall spatial distribution and does not decrease in size.

Significance of the indicator
The indicator shows the ratio of annual wood harvest to net annual wood increment. A balanced ratio indicates a stable wood stock. To maintain the productive function of forests in the long term, the wood harvest should not exceed wood increment. The stabilisation or reduction in the ratio of wood harvest to wood increment is positive for sustainable development.

Help for interpretation
A ratio of 1 indicates parity in wood harvest and increment. A ratio of less than one means that increment exceeds harvest and that an increase in wood stock can be recorded. This is borne out by the observed trend, with the exception of the years 1990 and 2000. The excess of use over net increment was unavoidable following the storms “Vivian” and “Lothar”. The quality of the forest cannot be deduced from the indicator.

International comparability
The indicator’s data are comparable at European level.

Synthesis

Comments: Calculation of the change in % only since 2001 because of the effects of the “Lothar” storm in 2000.

The indicator shows the annual wood harvest divided by the net annual increment of standing wood. The annual production of standing wood (i.e. annual net increment) is the gross annual increment less mortality (natural losses such as unharvested storm wood or resources lost due to fire).

Data come from the Forestry National accounts, published each year by the FSO.

Swiss target 15.2: Forestry is efficient and close to nature, respecting all three dimensions of sustainability in equal measure (environmental, social and economic). All forest functions are fulfilled equally. The forest maintains its overall spatial distribution and does not decrease in size.

International target 15.2: By 2020, promote the implementation of sustainable management of all types of forests, halt deforestation, restore degraded forests and substantially increase afforestation and reforestation globally.