One form of forest use is the forestry. It is a type of science similar to agriculture, although it is not well known. Its main objective is to take care of the maintenance of crops and forests. Another of the objectives for which forestry is positive is that it has guidelines to help in the conservation of the environment and nature, improving the quality of the environment.
In this article we are going to tell you everything you need to know about forestry and its main characteristics.
What is forestry
When we speak of forestry we are referring to an activity in charge of cultivating and maintaining forests and the entire forest ecosystem. Livestock also benefit from forestry thanks to the production of pastures for livestock. The main objective is to be able to conserve nature through the cultivation of forests improving environmental quality. Thanks to the fact that it produces pastures for cattle, it also favors the fauna.
Silviculture has an economic interest in forest use. In other words, all those abandoned ecosystems that do not have any productive yield can be modified through forestry. In Spain this science produces large exploitations of wood and cork without deteriorating natural ecosystems. This makes it become a sustainable activity over time and it degrades the ecosystems.
A balance between economy and ecology has always been sought. Forestry can be a clear example of this. It not only favors the development of employment for the people who are responsible for cultivating and maintaining forests, but also valuable natural resources are extracted. All this helping to promote the conservation of nature and the environment.
Forestry activities
In the activities that this science encompasses Sister of agriculture we have the sowing, maintenance and exploitation of forest crops. Unlike agriculture where production is subjected to various special treatments to be able to produce large quantities of crops, in forestry the crops are forestry. Namely, these crops spread throughout all forests and mountains. For practical purposes we could say that it is a familiar science in which some elements of agriculture are used, although with great differences.
The first major difference between agriculture and forestry is the production methodology. While in agriculture we need a large production of fruits and crops in just a few months, forestry has a production with results after dozens of years. We are talking about a timber exploitation. For trees to grow enough to be able to exploit their wood as a natural resource, dozens of years need to pass. However, after all that time we will have forests that will be able to support life. This time range also depends on the species that are being cultivated.
One of the factors involved in the development of forestry is the climate and the type of ecosystem where we grow crops. Depending on these factors, it will take more or less time to have the natural resource that we are sowing available. We must also take advantage of all the species capable of generating organic soil to enhance the reforestation of forests. It is another of the objectives of forestry.
Some activities that are included they are to cultivate forests with different treatments and techniques. To achieve less damage to the environment and for the activity to become sustainable, it is ensured that all the maintenance and use of materials is discussed in the most optimal and least harmful way. Thanks to these guidelines, forestry establishes a close relationship between well-being and productivity in different forest ecosystems.
What is forestry for?
The human being is continually looking for the utility of certain activities. In this case, we have the main utility of forestry as the management of forests and woodlands. Thanks to the maintenance and care of these ecosystems, we can permanently produce some services that are demanded by society. The problem with some services that are generated here is that they are not tangible. That is, they cannot be quantified economically. For example, one of the ecosystem services offered by natural forest resources is the production of oxygen and the absorption of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Trees, through the process of photosynthesis, absorb all the carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere to be able to transform it into oxygen. This translates as a purification of the air.
However, we cannot quantify by hectares or in a tangible way how this gas exchange benefits or affects us. There are also other ecosystem services that are tangible. For example, we have the production of wood and cork. All these ecosystem services are those offered by natural systems and that provide some environmental and economic benefit. As an environmental benefit we have the production of a natural ecosystem that is capable of supporting fauna and micro fauna.
For forestry to be an economic activity linked to the environment and conservation, the management of forests and mountains must be based on the principles of environmental sustainability. To achieve environmental sustainability, various treatments and tools are used that allow the crops to be used for different purposes and over a long period of time. Each crop has a specific purpose and an established function. It is this forester who must focus on exploiting each of the functions of these crops in order to optimize benefits and results.
We can say that for forestry to be an activity acclaimed by human beings it needs to have an economic benefit. This is how it seeks to use the available forest spaces to be able to grow trees that can obtain some economic benefit such as the extraction of wood, cork or paper.
Another ecological objective that forestry enables is the long-term production of multiple crops. This is how we establish a balance between the biological and ecological needs of the ecosystem with the economic needs of the crop. Thus, we continuously guarantee the renewal of resources without over-exploitation.
I hope that with this information you can learn more about the characteristics of forestry.