Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF) is forest management based on ecological principles and has been a standard in Central Europe for more than fifty years. Its history, however, goes much further back and stretches over more than a hundred years. In some countries and world areas, CCF is still very new, e.g. in the UK, Ireland, Scandinavia, North America, Australia and China. CCF practices received much encouragement from the certification and forest-declines debates at the end of the 20^th century and currently the popularity of CCF is on the increase again for its potential to mitigate climate change, to increase or at least maintain biodiversity in forest ecosystems, to provide valuable tools for forest conservation and to enhance the appeal of woodlands used for recreation. Recently the EU forest strategy for 2030 stated clearcutting should be “used only in duly justified cases, for example when proven necessary for environmental or ecosystem health reasons” and the strategy promotes “the creation or maintenance at stand and landscape level of genetically and functionally diverse, mixed‐species forests, especially with more broadleaves and deciduous trees and with species with different biotic and abiotic sensitivities and recovery mechanisms following disturbances.” These political statements clearly support CCF. There is currently a debate involving the Swedish forestry model and about applying more CCF in Sweden. Skogstyrelsen have committed to a transformation of 20% of forest land to CCF and practical as well as research skills in CCF may be important in the future.

Please come forward with your own ideas for master theses on CCF. Alternatively I can suggest a few options for involving CCF in your thesis work and we can do some brainstorming together. Please contact me on arne.pommerening@slu.se.

Get some ideas from my CCF textbook: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/slub-ebooks/detail.action?