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Health and vitality
Maintenance of health and vitality of forests is crucial for the
existence of forests and corresponding to the all products and
services form forets. Forest health is affected by several factors
simultaneously. Forest health can decline due to abiotic agents
such as atmospheric pollutants, exceptional weather conditions
or careless harvesting or timber storage. Deteriorating health
can also be due to biotic agents such as diseases caused by fungi
and insects. Climate change is expected to increase the risk of
local damages caused by snow, storms and insects.
Insects and diseases are the damaging agents most frequently
observed in Europe, followed by wildlife and grazing. Six percent
of the European forest area is affected by one or more damaging
agents. Damage due to storms, wind and snow was mainly
observed in Central, North and South-West Europe, while damage
due to forest fires was mainly reported for South-West and
South-East Europe.
Apart from the severe storm damage that occurred locally along
narrow belts in summer 2010 and winter 2011, there has been no widespread forest
damage in Finland for 30 years. Occasional local forest damage
does occur from time to time; in economic terms, the most
significant of these are damages caused by fungi and insects,
storm damage, and damages to saplings caused by elk. Climate
change is estimated to increase forest growth, but on the other
hand extreme weather phenomena will probably become more
common and cause local damage more frequently. |
