Introduction : Since 1993, the new forest legislation in Flanders provides a dynamic strategy for the implementation of forest reserves. Besides their nature conservation value, they are mainly conceived for the study of spontanuous forest dynamics.

Objectives : follow-up of the overall development of the total reserve (species composition, successional stages,...) better insight in the ecological processes of spontanuous dynamics better understanding of the relations between stand development, fauna and ground flora.

Method : The monitoring is based on a combination of a grid of nested circular plots and a core area of about 1 ha. All plots are permanently marked and remeasured every 10 years. The methodology is compatible both with methodologies for monitoring of strict reserves in the surrounding countries, and the methodology of the flemish forest inventory, thus allowing future comparisons. Next to the monitoring programme, standardised inventories of fungi and fauna will be stimulated, in order to obtain better insight in correlations between stand dynamics and population dynamics of animal and fungal communities.

Results : As the programme only started recently, only few results are existing. However the possibilities of the method are illustrated through a number of examples.