An operational approach to forest integrity assessment: A case study in temperate forests in Chile

Abstract

Human activities—particularly those driving to degradation—impact the integrity of forests, affecting their capacity to provide multiple goods and services to society. Ecological integrity is a key concept in conservation and forest management; however, the degree of forest modification remains poorly quantified, especially at operational scales. Here, we propose a novel methodological approach to forest integrity assessment from an operational perspective, using data from old-growth forest stands in the Andes range of south-central Chile. The methodological framework combines rapid assessment with 27 categorical variables to characterize forests at the stand level, considering site, structure, regeneration, and degradation drivers, we established three levels of forest integrity (high, medium, low), represented by a traffic light color scheme, to facilitate interpretation and application in forest management. We applied a quantitative analysis through a two-stage statistical approach to identify ecological thresholds in old-growth native forests, allowing us to measure the ecological integrity of forests, identifying structural and regenerative thresholds that serve as a practical operational tool for evaluators, planners, and decision makers in conservation and forest management.