To conclude, pro-active and collaborative spatial planning across different sectors and countries is needed to secure functional forest green infrastructure as base for biodiversity conservation and human well-being.
This structural degradation indicates that landscape-scale forest loss strongly determines the trajectory of the local forest structure, pushing forests to a retrogressive succession process, which is more likely to occur in deforested landscapes and can lead to functional forest erosion.
REDD+ deploys results-based finance to incentivize emissions reduction, based on a functional forest carbon measuring, reporting and verification (MRV) system [3].
A functional forest carbon measuring, reporting and verification (MRV) system to support climate change mitigation policies, such as REDD+, requires estimates of forest biomass carbon, as an input to estimate emissions.
In the present study we focus solely on the main functional forest taxa (Larix decidua, Pinus cembra, Betula sp., total Ericaceae, and total herbs) whose abundance is expressed in influx (cm−2.yr−1) using solid age-depth models based on a total of 21 calibrated 14C datings of plant macroremains and 210Pb measurements (details given in [27], [44]).
We recommend careful consideration of any proposed developmental activities in these corridors and suggest that these functional forest corridors be protected for the long-term survival of leopards and other species in this landscape.
These are mainly characterised as semi-natural, multi-functional forests.
Not only is the paradigm of a multi-functional forest reinforcing the interest in the relationship among productivity, species richness, and structural diversity, but also the evidence that species mixing and structural diversity can increase productivity.
Even more today, multi-functional forest management in central Europe faces new threats as climate change induces shifts in forest growth potential as well as increasing current and emerging new abiotic and biotic risks (Lindner et al. 2010; Seidl et al. 2010; see Table 1 for definition).
Following Estrada-Villegas et al. [21], we made the following predictions for two functional groups (forest versus open-space) of bats: (1) we expected forest bat species richness and activity levels to decline with increasing agricultural intensification; and (2) we expected open-space bat richness and activity levels to increase or show no response across the intensification gradient.
