Silviculture is a practice which comes from the millenary interdependence between forest and man. The knowledge accumulated over the millennia has been consolidated in the silviculture as a scientific discipline, developed around the need of integration between the protection of ecosystem functionalities and forest practices, to fulfil the wide ranging demands of society.

The management of forests, no matter if private, public or collective, is an opportunity for society to try to ensure the protection of this common good. Planning is essentially the way to arrange forest activities. Its importance is particularly evident in the context of sustainable forest management, and planning is a prerequisite to ensure it.

Silviculture combines cutting trees with regeneration of the forest. Coppicing is a silvicultural practice ensuring regeneration by exploiting an ability of many species of trees which has been known since prehistoric times: they resprout thanks to dormant buds activated after a traumatic impact such as cutting them down.

According to the “Our Common Future” Report (also known as the Brundtland Report), which was published by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) of the United Nations in 1987, sustainable development is defined as: "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."