1 Planted Forests and Biodiversity By

Forest ecosystems shelter a major part of terrestrial biological diversity, and over the past decades, conservation of biodiversity has become a key element in national forest policies and planning. Plantation forests are cultivated forest ecosystems established primarily for wood biomass production but also for soil and water conservation or wind protection. During the past decade, the global forest plantation area has increased by an estimated 32 million ha while the area of natural forests has declined by 126 million ha. Biodiversity is an issue of increasing relevance to the development and management of plantation forests and their long-term sustainability. Plantations can and do play a vital role in forest conservation by providing a substitute for wood from unsustainable harvesting of natural forests. In many parts of the world plantations also play a key role in restoring local ecosystem services and by reducing runoff and erosion on previously degraded sites. Despite these positive attributes, plantation forests are widely viewed in a negative light in relation to biological diversity conservation, especially when intensive monocultures of exotic species are involved. While a plantation stand will, in general, support fewer native species than a native forest at the same site, plantations are increasingly replacing other human-modified ecosystems (e.g., degraded pasture) and ofte