Past benefits of European forests

In Europe, the multitude of material and non-material benefits provided by forests for people have been described ever since written¹ sources on forests have been available. Platon’s (Kritias 111b-d) description on the erosion and other adverse

1 Before use of wood fiber for paper was discovered, other materials of trees were used for writing. One was bass, the inner fiber containing side of bark, of which Latin word liber (a book) originated. The other was waxed boards, pieces of tree, called caudex, of which the codex (a collection of codes, a hand written book) is derived (Westoby 1989).

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consequences following to the cutting of Attika’s forests and the long-time deforestation in the Mediterranean region have become an inherent part of forest and environmental history (Thirgood 1981, Westoby 1989, Hughes 2009). The early critical findings did not prevent the same to be replicated elsewhere.

Most of Europe’s forests continued to be deforested, in accelerating pace from c. 1000 A.D. until the end of 18th and 19th century. The ever growing scarcity of trees and forests germinated the ideas towards sustainable use of forests in France and England, but most systematically in Germany.

One of the first if not the first articulation of the principle of sustainable forest management can be found from von Carlowitz (1713), a mining expert, in his “Oeconomica Sylvicultura”. It also contains an early illustration of the variety of forest benefits. The examples of forest benefits were:

• the usefulness of wood at the start and end of life and mankind in general;

• especially in building work, for making utensils and handtools,

• in food making, beer brewing and wine making,

• how to get bread from tree, in dyeing and agriculture,

• for travelling on land and seas, in the production of iron and salt,

• protection of soil and roads, the usefulness of the forests as a seat of wild game, and sustenance for cattle, forests as beautiful environment for the song of birds,

• in manufacture of all kind of materials,

• the music and echo of the forests, the offers of forests for food and drink

• and their usefulness during wartime and when epidemics rage.

It is clear that all the categories of provisioning, regulating and maintenance and cultural ecosystem services already are there (Saastamoinen et al. 2013). Although the emphasis has been in provisioning services, for example the cultural services

10 (the song of the birds, music and echo of the forests) recorded 300 years ago still sound that fresh that one may even ask whether they have been given enough attention in the current research.

Westoby (1989) include wide historic and more recent surveys and country cases about the multitude and utilization of different forest products and benefits in different parts of the world. He used an implicit division between products based on wood material, other forest products and other influences of trees. It also contains descriptions and analyses how, why and to what extent the forests and their benefits have been lost - and sometimes recovered or reconstructed - during the history in the many parts of the world, including Europe.

Schmithüsen (2008) gives an illustrating picture about the land use, population and forest dynamics related to multiple uses of the temperate forests of Central and Eastern Europe during roughly the past millennium. Local resources of forests were important. A saying that “wood and suffering grow everyday” expresses the elementary necessity of wood for daily uses. In line and addition to the list of von Carlowitz (1713) one can find, for example provisioning service such as hazelnuts, wild fruits of trees, berries and mushrooms, which helped people to survive during the bad years with low crop yields. For fattening of pigs, acorns and beech mast were used and in some regions the earnings from pig fattening in forests became larger than those from wood use. Potassium carbonate from ash for glass production, shrubby vegetation and bark for tanning and fiber, resin and tar were among forest goods. Forests provided forage and litter for livestock, land for agroforestry. Roots, leaves, bark and branches were used in the pharmacopoeia or for dyes. Collecting honey from wild and beekeeping were important activities. Leaves and needles collected from forest substituted fertilizers in small farms. Besides the traditional use of wood for construction, firewood and charcoal, mining, iron making, salt production and glass making were known as xylophage – wood eating industries. Naval dockyards and boat

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building were among these large scale users of wood serving both warfare and trade (Schmithüsen 2008).

The mixed and shifting borders of forests, pastures and agricultural lands, however, made it difficult to say what were forests and what not. This problem is evident also elsewhere when looking back into history and in some parts of the world even nowadays. The only clear distinction at that time was between intensively used areas (home gardens, plowed fields) and the common land accessible to the community. The separation between the systems of agriculture and forestry became later during the agrarian reforms and intensification of agricultural, and later forestry, production (Schmithüsen 2008).

This separation and intensification brought adverse consequences to species and biotope diversity and also major changes in landscape (Schmithüsen 2008).

The earliest cultural services of the forest seem to have been hunting as an amusement – not for subsistence. In viewing a history of forest management in Europe, Adams (2008) mentions that Phillip of Macedonia (400 B.C.) maintained forests for his hunting and other recreational pursuits. The objective of royal forests in England was to protect game for the king’s use and enjoyment, not to grow trees. The concept of the royal forests grew to encompass at least one fourth of England (Young 1979, cited in Adams 2008). Forest was defined as “a Certain territory of wooded grounds and fruitful pastures, privileged for wild beasts and fowls of the Forest … to rest and abide in, in the safe protection of the king, for his princely delight and pleasure”

(Manwood [1615] 1976, cited in Adams 2008). The dominance of the hunting interest of the king and noblemen were evident in Germany and Denmark as well, which besides legislation was also reflected in the origin of the professional titles of foresters (Groen 1931).

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1.3 PRE-INDUSTRIAL FOREST USES IN FINLAND AS