Sammendrag
Some regions like Europe have experienced a net gain in forest areas over the last decades, but intact areas of
natural forests are declining worldwide, accompanied by changes in forest ecosystem functions and benefits to
humans. We conduct a biophysical assessment of trends, condition, and drivers of change of forest ecosystem
services in Norway from 1950 to 2020. Four main results are highlighted. First, industrial forestry, large scale
measures of re- and afforestation, and infrastructure development (e.g., roads and recreational homes) have been
the main direct drivers of forest transformation. Second, deep transformations in the Norwegian economy shaped
trends of forest ecosystem services over the study period. Third, with the shifts towards the tertiary (service)
sector and the mechanization of forestry, the economic and material relations between forests and local com-
munities are waning. Overall, people’s primary relationships to forests have shifted from livelihood to recreation.
Fourth, forest management in Norway has largely favored provisioning services at the expense of supporting
services and some cultural and regulating services. Consequently, while Norwegian forests retain strong capacity
to deliver provisioning services, the overall ecological condition is relatively poor. Our assessment provides an
approach to identify and explain trends of ecosystem services at a national scale, over a long period of time. We
argue that growth in forest area and biomass are insufficient indicators for sustainable forest management, and
that future forest polices would benefit from improved knowledge on forests ecological condition, resilience
against climate change, and socio-cultural contributions to human well-being.
Forest management
Biophysical assessment
Ecosystem service trends
Ecosystem condition
Fennoscandia
Norway
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