Interactions between society and forest ecosystems: challenges for the near future

European forestry is rich and complex both from the ecological and the socio-economical point of view. In this paper, we discuss the human interaction with the forest today, including the influence of management systems and suggest potentially rewarding areas for future ecological research. Changing patterns of land use and the impact of socio-economic factors on management practices have brought about major changes in forest ecosystems. Abandoned farmland, particularly in temperate and northern Europe, is undergoing a process of colonisation by tree and shrub species with implications for carbon sequestration, wood production, regional biodiversity and soil stability. In southern Europe, desertification is occurring particularly where the frequency of fire and/or grazing pressure are high. Multiple use of the forest has usually been described as a way of combining timber utilisation with other uses of forest products and forest land. There is a need to study the influence of multiple use management on ecosystem stability and social structures, especially in regions where forest areas and human settlements are situated in proximity to one another. Fundamental to a discussion of these issues are questions concerning the necessity for forests, the optimum proportion of the land that should be under forest and the appropriate level of management intervention in these forests. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V, All rights reserved.