Theoretical perspectives for enhancing biological diversity in forest ecosystems in Europe

Forests produce a great variety of wood and non-wood products and services. For a long time foresters have understood themselves to be guarantors for the sustainable management of forests, particularly for the long-term production of timber. In the context of the environmental movement of the 1960s, the timber-oriented perception of forests was challenged by an ecosystem orientation, focusing on the maintenance and enhancement of biological diversity. Since then, forest policy has been characterised by two opposing positions, or camps, both of whom pursue their interests in the formulation and implementation of policies for forests. Both sides seek to ensure biological diversity in forests by quite a number of national, European and international legally binding instruments and non-legally binding initiatives for forests. As it is too early for evaluation studies on the outcome of these policy means, an assessment of the chance of a compromise between the two camps is sought on theoretical grounds using the rational choice theory, common-property regimes, and the belief systems approach. All three approaches provide some theoretical perspectives for enhancing biological diversity in forests: the rational choice approach by means of basic principles of national forest programmes, the common-property regimes by the internalisation of conflicting forest uses, and the belief systems approach by the probability of changes in ideological beliefs.