Forests provide many things at once. They supply wood, store carbon, regulate water, protect against natural hazards and soil erosion, support biodiversity and provide space for recreation. But not every one of these functions can be maximised in the same place at the same time.
Sustainable forest management recognises the ecological, economic and social functions of forests. The practical challenge is deciding how those functions should be pursued together, particularly where they depend on different conditions or management choices.
On 16 September 2026, Teaming Up 4 Forests will publish the Productive and Biodiverse synthesis study, bringing together evidence on biodiversity conservation and wood production, carbon storage, climate resilience and the challenge of managing forests for multiple functions. It will examine how different objectives can be pursued together without obscuring the trade-offs between them.
Sustainable forest management requires clear choices about objectives
Managing forests sustainably means considering a range of environmental, economic and social objectives. This multifunctionality is an important part of sustainable forest management, but it does not mean that every forest must provide every function, or provide them all to the same degree.
Nor do those objectives automatically align. For example, our upcoming study notes that maximising wood production or bioenergy supply can lead to more intensive management, which can negatively affect species richness and habitat quality. Biodiversity-sensitive management can reduce some of these trade-offs.
The point is not that forestry goals inevitably conflict. Some can reinforce one another. In any case, multifunctionality does not remove the need to decide what is being prioritised, or to understand what pursuing one objective may mean for another.
Clear forest management objectives reveal synergies and trade-offs.
Broad ambitions such as supporting biodiversity, supplying wood and storing carbon are important, but they are not yet management decisions. Each has to become specific enough to guide choices in a particular forest: what outcome is being sought, under what conditions and through which management approach?
That clarity makes it possible to examine the relationships between objectives properly. Some management choices may support several outcomes at once. Others may improve one outcome while limiting another. Science can help distinguish between those situations and make the consequences of different choices more explicit.
Managing forests for multiple functions therefore requires understanding how those functions relate to one another. This helps identify where objectives can reinforce each other, where trade-offs remain and how different functions can be pursued together within sustainable forest management.The Productive and Biodiverse synthesis study will examine these relationships in much greater depth when it is published on 16 September.
Join the Teaming Up 4 Forests publication webinar to hear the researchers introduce the study and the evidence it brings together.
