Conservation and restoration of biodiversity become the very important issues of the forest policy in all forest countries. Knowledge on the survey methods, monitoring programmes, current state and management of biodiversity is needed.

Both theoretical basics and practical implications will be studied during the course. The students will learn about natural forest dynamics, role of different kinds of disturbances in the biodiversity. The components of natural (pristine, old-growth, virgin) forests changing or disappearing in managed forests like coarse woody debris, large coniferous and deciduous trees etc. will be described. Working with experimental data acquired from case studies students will calculate the biodiversity indexes and make comparative analysis of different biodiversity components. During the field day students will look at different indicators of biodiversity and make an attempt to reconstruct the forest history. The human impact on biodiversity, present state and conservation of biodiversity will be discussed.