Close-to-nature forestry.

This chapter discusses the concept of 'close-to-nature' forestry. The terms 'close-to-nature forestry', 'nearto-nature silviculture', 'naturalistic silviculture', 'natural forestry', or 'continuous cover forestry' have been used to name various management practices that all share common traits of a focus on site conditions and no clear-cutting. However, the terms have been defined differently over time and by different authors, and their similarities and differences have been debated intensively over the years. The situation is further complicated by the fact that the debate is either led by forest scientists who publish in scientific journals or by forest practitioners who discuss the issues in more practice-oriented publications; neither debate may fully reflect what is happening on the ground. Further, this chapter outlines some strands of the development of this approach without going too much into the details of the differences between followers of the various schools. It is established that close-to-nature forestry might not be the panacea that some of its promoters claim, but is definitely well suited to fulfil a wide range of societal demands. It has the strength that it does not consist of a dogmatic set of rules, but of adaptive measures around a set of principles. As long as its adherents continue to accept such adaptation in how the principles are applied, so its application may increasingly spread.