Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) Toolbox

Management of Planted Forests

The Management of Planted Forests Module provides information on good practices for the establishment and management of planted forests. It can be seen as dealing principally with the silviculture of planted forests beginning where the module on Forest Reproductive Material stops. It is complemented by the modules on Wood Harvesting, Wood Energy, Forest Pests, Agroforestry, and Forest-based Enterprises. This includes guidance from site selection and choice of planting material through planting and tending.

Planting forest
09 February 2015
This video shows how to plant trees in forest spot to regenerate the forest or support the natural regeneration. It also gives indications on the best type of soil for trees such as fir, spruce and birch.
Sowing pine
09 February 2015
This video shows how to plant pine seeds; this species is more appropriate than spruce on poor soils. Pine may be sown in the spring on poor and coarse-grained soils which have been prepared by breaking the ground. The technique is applied on Finnish stands.
Buffer zones
09 February 2015
The video shows effects and benefits for landscape and biodiversity to have an untouched buffer zone of a few metres between waterways and felling sites.
Retention trees
06 February 2015
To promote the biodiversity of forest nature, groups of trees are left standing on regeneration felling sites. This video shows this technique applied on Finnish stands.
Regeneration felling
06 February 2015
As the growth of the trees in a forest slows down or the trees becomes of sufficient age and size, it may be regenerated. Regeneration felling is comparable to harvesting, so that they also result in the biggest logging revenues. According to the Finnish Forest Act, new stands must be...
First thinning
06 February 2015
Too dense a forest needs to be thinned. Depending on the site and the tree species, two or three thinnings may be carried out before regeneration. The forest owner may gain substantial revenue from thinnings. In the first thinning the best trees are selected and left to grow, and space...
Tree planting guidelines for Uganda
20 February 2014
The book covers all the stages ‘from seed to sawlog’. It focuses on the establishment and management of the main commercial tree species currently being grown in Uganda and is based on the a unique blend of the senior authors’ experience of forestry in Southern and East Africa combined with...
Project on afforestation, forestry research, planning and development in the Three North Region, China
20 February 2014
This site provides summarized information on the problems of soil erosion and desertification in the Korqin Sandy Lands in China, and describes integrated restoration and reforestation strategies carried out through a Government Cooperation Project between the People's Republic of China and the Kingdom of Belgium, and implemented by FAO from...
FAO projects related to planted forests
20 February 2014
FAO undertakes field projects to assist member countries in testing and demonstrating alternative processes, methodologies and techniques in the field of planted forests. This website collects all documents related to projects of afforestation, reforestation, support to natural regeneration and rehabilitation of forests. The page shows links to downloadable project documents...
New Generation Plantation platform
20 February 2014
WWF set up NGP in 2007. The NGP platform is a place to learn about better plantation management through real world experiences, and influence others to follow good examples. NGP brings together leading plantation companies and some government agencies that manage and regulate plantations. The NGP platform seeks to advance...
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