Forest management based on continuous cover
forests (CCFs; ‘‘Plenterwa¨lder’’) has been practiced
in some temperate forests for centuries (Schu¨tz, 2001)
and is the main system for the silvicultural treatment
of species-rich forests of the Central tropics. CCFs
attract the interest of forest managers due to their high
structural diversity since trees of different age and size
are growing close to each other, and due to the
abandonment of large-scale clear cutting operations.