Balancing increasing demand for wood products while also maintaining forest biodiversity is a paramount challenge. Europe's Biodiversity and Forest Strategies for 2030 attempt to address this challenge. Together, they call for strict protection of 10% of land area, including all primary and old growth forests, increasing use of ecological forestry, and less reliance on monocultural plantations. Using data on country wide silvicultural practices and a new database on strict forest reserves across Europe, we assess how triad forest zoning could help meet these goals. Our analysis reveals that zoning in Europe is overwhelmingly focused on wood production, while there has been little concomitant protection of forests in strict reserves. Moreover, most strict forest reserves are < 50 ha in size, likely too small to capture the minimum dynamic area necessary to sustain many taxa. We outline research priorities to meet future demands for timber while minimizing the impact on native biodiversity.

Austrian Research Centre for Forests Seckendorff Gudent Weg 8 1131 Vienna Austria

Bioeconomy Research Institute Vytautas Magnus University Studentų 11 53361 Akademija Lithuania

Biotechnical Faculty University of Montenegro Mihaila Lalica 1 81000 Podgorica Montenegro

Centre for Macroecology Evolution and Climate University of Copenhagen 2100 Copenhagen Denmark

Dendrology Department University of Forestry Kliment Ohridski 10 Blvd 1757 Sofia Bulgaria

Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences University of Milan Milan Italy

Department of Biodiversity Ecology and Evolution Faculty of Biological Sciences Complutense University of Madrid Madrid Spain

Department of Biogeography and Global Change National Museum of Natural Sciences CSIC Serrano 115 28006 Madrid Spain

Department of Environmental Biology Sapienza University of Rome P le Aldo Moro 5 00185 Rome Italy

Department of Forest Biodiversity Faculty of Forestry University of Agriculture al 29 Listopada 46 31 425 Kraków Poland

Department of Forest Ecology and Silviculture Forestry Faculty University of Zagreb Zagreb Croatia

Department of Forest Ecology Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences Czech University of Life Sciences Prague Kamýcká 129 165 00 Prague Suchdol Czech Republic

Department of Forest Ecology Forest Research Institute Braci Lesnej 3 Sekocin Stary 05 090 Raszyn Poland

Department of Forest Science Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy Studentų 11 53361 Akademija Lithuania

Department of Forestry and Renewable Forest Resources Biotechnical Faculty University of Ljubljana Vecna Pot 83 1000 Ljubljana Slovenia

Department of Forestry and Wildlife Management Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences Campus Evenstad N 2480 Koppang Norway

Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Mangement University of Copenhagen Copenhagen Denmark

Department of Land Environment Agriculture and Forestry Università degli Studi di Padova 35020 Legnaro PD Italy

Environmental Sciences Group Wageningen University and Research P O Box 47 Wageningen The Netherlands

Faculty of Forestry University of Banja Luka blvd Petra Bojovića 1A 78000 Banja Luka Bosnia and Herzegovina

Faculty of Forestry University of Sarajevo Zagrebačka 20 71000 Sarajevo Bosnia and Herzegovina

Forest Biometrics Laboratory Faculty of Forestry Stefan Cel Mare University of Suceava Universitatii Street No 13 Suceava Romania

Forest Economics Department Faculty of Forestry Düzce University Konuralp Yerleskesi 81620 Düzce Turkey

Forest Research Institute Hellenic Agricultural Organization DIMITRA 57006 Thessaloniki Greece

Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research Bulgarian Academy of Sciences 2 Gagarin Street 1113 Sofia Bulgaria

Institute of Ecology and Botany HUN REN Centre for Ecological Research Alkotmány u 2 4 Vácrátót 2163 Hungary

Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences University of Tartu J Liivi 2 50409 Tartu Estonia

Institute of Environmental Protection and Nature Conservation Forestry Faculty University of Sopron Bajcsy Zsilinszky u 4 Sopron 9400 Hungary

Latvian State Forest Research Institute Silava Riga Street 111 Salaspils 2169 Latvia

National Biodiversity Future Centre Piazza Marina 61 90133 Palermo Italy

Norwegian Institute for Nature Research Sognsveien 68 0855 Oslo Norway

Research Institute On Terrestrial Ecosystems National Research Council 50019 Sesto Fiorentino FI Italy

School of Agricultural Forest and Food Sciences HAFL Bern University of Applied Sciences 3052 Zollikofen Switzerland

School of Forest Sciences University of Eastern Finland Yliopistokatu 7 80101 Joensuu Finland

TUM School of Life Sciences Technical University of Munich Freising Germany

Université Grenoble Alpes INRAE Lessem 2 rue de la Papeterie BP76 38402 Saint Martin d'Heres France

Vegetation Science and Nature Conservation Institute of Biology and Environmental Science University of Oldenburg Oldenburg Germany

Wageningen Environmental Research P O Box 47 Wageningen The Netherlands

WSL Swiss Federal Research Institute 8903 Birmensdorf Switzerland

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