Marteloscopes as training tools for the retention and conservation of habitat trees in forests

Recently several initiatives on the political and practical level have aimed at promoting forest biodiversity and at halting the loss of species in forest ecosystems. Nevertheless numerous species are still threatened. The main reason for this phenomenon is most likely the fact that habitat trees – i.e. trees providing microhabitats for various different species – are rare in managed forests. In the course of the projects Integrate and Integrate+ (carried out at the European Forest Institute between 2011 and 2017) we looked for methods on how to retain habitat trees within the scope of integrative forest management. It became more and more apparent that most foresters very successfully recognize economically valuable trees, but not habitat trees. For that reason we categorized habitat structures occurring on trees and developed a microhabitat catalogue to determine habitat values. Additionally we used marteloscopes as training tools for the retention of habitat trees within integrative forest management. Altogether we established 40 such marteloscopes with a biodiversity focus across Europe. Three of these are located in Switzerland. Using a mobile app on a tablet computer we analyzed effects of different tree selections with respect to habitat and economic value of a stand. Furthermore the marteloscopes are ideal tools to convince decision makers or conservationists that harvesting trees and promoting biodiversity can be achieved in the very same stand.