Lessons from natural forests as keys for sustainable management and improvement of naturalness in managed broadleaved forests

Abstract An appreciation of the natural processes in forests is essential in order to propose rules for both conservation of wildlife and sustainable management. This paper proposes the use of the word `naturalness' or `authenticity' (i.e. the vegetation owns its features strictly to natural factors and not to the action of people) rather than biodiversity, in the senses published in Peterken (1996) and Bucking (1997) . The study analyses a concrete case in an intensively managed landscape of low altitude (300 m), in the Vosges, eastern France. Regeneration, structure and natural cycles are described from small unmanaged stands of the region. In spite of human impact on the reserves, significant results were obtained for an assessment of the level of naturalness in the present landscape, for a model of succession of the pre-settlement forests of the region, for an estimation of the minimum area in future strict reserves, and for proposals for more sustainable management, which would ensure enhancement of stability and conservation of authentic biodiversity in the managed ecosystem. These results are compared with observations made in Romania, in a pure old-growth Beech forest of the natural reserve of Nera, Banat mountains.