Your new experience awaits. Try the new design now and help us make it even better

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. For. Glob. Change

Sec. People and Forests

Volume 8 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/ffgc.2025.1653665

Factors affecting the Forest value chain resilience-a local economic perspective in five European countries

Provisionally accepted
  • 1Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czechia
  • 2Universitat Graz, Graz, Austria
  • 3European Forest Institute Bonn, Bonn, Germany
  • 4Centre de Recerca Ecologica i Aplicacions Forestals, Bellaterra, Spain
  • 5Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona Departament de Biologia Animal de Biologia Vegetal i d'Ecologia, Bellaterra, Spain
  • 6Universidade de Vigo Escola de Enxenaria Forestal, Pontevedra, Spain
  • 7Hrvatski sumarski institut, Jastrebarsko, Croatia
  • 8Luonnonvarakeskus, Helsinki, Finland
  • 9Chair of Forestry Economics and Forest Planning, University of Freiburg, Tennenbacherstr. 4, 79106 Freiburg, Germany, Freiburg, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

This study investigates the economic resilience of Forest Value Chains (FVC) at the local level through five European case studies: Kostelec, Czechia (CZ), Upper Rhine Valley, Germany (DE), Istria, Croatia (HR), Kainuu, Finland (FIN), and Galicia, Spain (ESP). Using an operational resilience framework (ORF) and a resilience assessment centered on revenue as a system variable. A sensitivity analysis of profitability thresholds confirmed the robustness of the results. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was applied to examine market price fluctuations across various timber types, market trends and salvage logging practices from 2001 to 2021. Two-way fixed-effects panel regression models revealed that planned harvested volume, mechanization, and market prices were significant predictors of enhanced economic resilience. The analysis revealed three interrelated dimensions of FVC resilience: resistance to market shocks, recovery following disturbances, and capacity for transformation via adaptive management. Two predominant adaptation strategies emerged: a market-driven approach, characterized by product diversification and price stability, and a disturbance-driven strategy, focused on reactive harvesting and technological innovation. While salvage logging offered short-term economic relief, excessive dependence undermined long-term stability. The findings highlight the need to balance short-term recovery with long-term sustainability in managing Europe’s FVCs.

Keywords: Salvage logging, Timber assortments, Technology, Market approach, Harvesting strategies

Received: 25 Jun 2025; Accepted: 16 Oct 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Garcia Jacome, Brudermann, Stern, Lindner, Lloret, Uzquiano, Asada, J., Nuhlíček, Vuletic, Peltoniemi, Baumbach and Jankovský. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Sandra Paola Garcia Jacome, garcia_jacome@fld.czu.cz

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.