Îlots de senescence in the ManFor C.BD sites

Ever since the European conference in Lisbon on the protection of European forests (1998), the importance of deadwood preservation for ecosystem conservation represents a well-established concept. The conservation of the species that depend on deadwood (i.e., saproxylic; Speight, 1989) in productive forests is achieved through two approaches, complementary to natural reserves: the set aside of small forest patches and the preservation of habitat trees, which work as stepping-stones to increase the connectivity of a forest landscape (Lachat and Bütler, 2007). The creation of small forest reserves has been experimented in different countries: in France and Swiss as îlots de senescence1 or senescence islands, and in northern Europe as 'woodland key habitats'.