Forest Inventories and Ecological Monitoring of the Integral Forest Reserves in the Semois Valley National Park

As part of the development of the Semois Valley National Park, Ecofirst was commissioned to design and implement an inventory and ecological monitoring protocol in the Integral Forest Reserves (RFI). These areas, intended to evolve without silvicultural intervention, currently represent nearly 940 hectares of existing forests and approximately 300 hectares currently being established. The objective of this project is to document the natural evolution of these forest ecosystems and to assess their contribution to biodiversity and forest resilience.

To ensure robust and comparable monitoring over time, Ecofirst has developed a sampling plan based on the establishment of approximately 100 inventory plots distributed according to the territory’s main ecological contexts. These plots enable the conduct of two complementary types of inventories: the Potential Biodiversity Index (PBI), which assesses the capacity of forest stands to support biodiversity, and the Forest Management Inventory (FMI), designed to characterize the dendrometric structure of stands and their natural dynamics.

Field surveys involve, in particular, cataloging the tree species present, the stand’s vertical structure, the presence of deadwood, trees with microhabitats, as well as various dendrometric parameters such as tree circumference, height, and health status. These georeferenced data make it possible to characterize the initial state of naturally evolving forests and to monitor their long-term structural changes.

The results obtained will contribute to improving our understanding of the natural dynamics of forests and supporting the conservation and sustainable management policies implemented in the National Park.

Our expertise in support of this project:

• Project coordination: V. Claes
• Forest inventories and ecological analyses: V. Claes, M. Manderlier
• Scientific support: University of Liège