Growth Trends in European Forests

The recent debate on forest decline and possible climatic changes emphasized the need of growth studies. In the 1980s several studies reported a reduction of forest growth, whereas other studies resulted in quite opposite findings. A study conducted under the auspices of the European Forest Institute (EFI) on forest resources in Europe between 1950 and 1990 showed a remarkable increase in growing stock. In 1993 EFI started a follow-up project on "Growth Trends in European Forests", which focused on the evaluation of available data at the European level. This publication presents the results of the project compiling studies in 12 European countries. Summarizing the individual studies, an increasing growth trend can be observed in most cases, apart from some specific sites.