Landscape goods and services related to forestry land use

Abstract

It has been argued by Mather (1992) that forestry has passed through three distinct historic phases of development: a pre-industrial phase; an industrial phase; and a post-industrial phase. In the pre-industrial phase, forestry was principally but not exclusively a provider of local livelihoods, providing a wide range of timber and non-timber products. In Western Europe this role largely ceased by the late 19th century, although in post-communist countries there has been something of a resurgence of this function in newly privatised forest holdings, which comprise a significant part of the forest estate. Over the 18th and 19th century, the growth of imperial powers and the beginnings of the industrial revolution created a more mono-functional demand for specific types of timber, initially for shipbuilding or charcoal manufacture, but also for building material and paper manufacture. This has been termed the industrial phase. Although this monofunctional industrial style of forestry remains to some extent in some parts of Europe, the most recent post-industrial phase has created more varied styles of forestry with a stronger amenity or post-productivist function (Mather 2001).