Help Shape the Future of Closer-to-Nature Forest Management

Forests are at a crossroads. With climate change, biodiversity loss, and increasing pressure on natural resources, we must rethink how we manage them. Preferred by Nature (PbN) has developed a Closer-to-Nature Forest Management Add-On Standard, designed to complement existing FSC, PEFC, and PbN certification frameworks. This approach aligns with the EU Forest Strategy and seeks to ensure that forests remain biodiverse, resilient, and highly productive, continuing to supply the world with responsibly sourced wood—one of the most environmentally friendly materials available.

What is Closer-to-Nature Forest Management?

Closer-to-Nature Forest Management (CTNFM) promotes a shift away from intensive, uniform forestry practices towards diverse, ecologically rich, and productive forests that balance climate resilience, biodiversity, and timber production. The core principles include:

• Ensuring high productivity – Managing forests for both ecological health and strong, sustainable wood yields to meet growing demand.
• Minimizing clear cuts – Only using them when ecologically justified, such as mimicking natural disturbances.
• Enhancing biodiversity – Increasing tree species diversity, retaining deadwood, and preserving key habitats.
• Improving forest resilience – Selecting tree species adapted to future climate conditions and promoting natural regeneration.
• Reducing soil disturbance – Using careful logging techniques to protect soil health and water systems.
• Long-term forest planning – Ensuring a vision for structurally diverse forests that provide ecosystem services beyond timber production.

Why It Matters

Wood is an essential renewable resource that plays a key role in the transition to a low-carbon economy—substituting carbon-intensive materials like concrete, steel, and plastics. However, to maintain a sustainable supply of wood, forests must be resilient to climate change, managed for biodiversity, and productive over the long term. The Closer-to-Nature approach optimizes forest management to deliver both high-value timber and ecosystem services, ensuring that forests continue to meet both environmental and economic needs.

Get Involved – Your Input is Essential!

We are launching a stakeholder consultation to refine and strengthen this standard. We invite forest managers, certification bodies, businesses, NGOs, researchers, and policymakers to review the draft and share their feedback. Your insights will help shape a practical and scientifically sound framework that supports sustainable, productive, and resilient forests while meeting market and regulatory expectations.

➡ Click here to access the draft and participate in the survey.  Access the draft version of the Closer-to-Nature Forest Management Standard here. 

Together, we can build a future where forests thrive—providing essential ecosystem services, supporting biodiversity, and sustaining the world’s demand for responsibly sourced wood.

Join the conversation. Be part of the solution.