important plant areas in central and eastern europe - Plantlife

Section 6
Forests and forestry
Forests are key habitats for the conservation of many rare plant, fungi, moss and lichen
species. Europe has a wide diversity of forest types from the expanses of conifer forests
in the north and the Baltic, to the unbroken belts of oak-beech and beech-spruce
forests of central Europe and the species rich deciduous and mixed forests of southern
Europe. Some of the forests of southern Europe were not affected by glaciation and
have forest compositions that have existed for many thousands of years. Old growth
forests, areas where there has been little or no human activity for over one hundred
years, are extremely species rich.They are increasingly rare and these few remaining
areas should be prioritised for protection. Sustainable management should be applied
also in forests that are commercially exploited.
Several million people are employed in the forestry industry in Europe today, and
forestry is an important economic sector.There is an urgent need to find a sustainable
balance between the needs of economic forestry and the need to conserve Europe’s
forest heritage for the future.
Threatened forest habitats
The EU Habitats Directive recognises 65 threatened forest habitats and the Council of
Europe, Bern Convention recognises 109 threatened forest habitats, such as the Alvar
forests of Estonia, flood plain forest, beech forests and Scots pine forests. Many of
Europe’s rarest tree species are listed in the World List of Threatened Trees.
The most important impacts of human activity on forest biodiversity are:
• Clearing old growth and deciduous forest and replacing them with plantations of
exotic and coniferous species.
• Harvesting of trees before they reach maturity, which results in a decrease in the
number of species associated with old and decaying trees.
• Clearing of alluvial forests for agriculture and plantations of fast growing hybrid
poplars, and changing the hydrological systems of swamp forests
• Modifying the species composition of existing forests and creating formations that do
not occur naturally
• Draining of peat soils and humid forests to accelerate forest growth
• Constructing timber road networks in wilderness areas
• Reforestation of abandoned agricultural land and formerly grazed environments
Quality not quantity: afforestation in Europe
The area of forest in Europe is increasing, partly through afforestation programmes cofinanced
by the EU (1 million hectares since 1991), but also through natural regeneration
on agricultural and formerly grazed land. Although this is generally viewed as a positive
trend, there are concerns for plant conservation.
• In afforestation projects, the preference for conifers over deciduous trees, and exotic
over indigenous species, has a negative effect on biodiversity
• The rise in forest area conceals the fact that many of the last old growth forests in
Europe are still threatened with deforestation and replacement with plantations
• Afforestation projects often occur on key natural and semi-natural open and grassland
habitats.
All afforestation programmes should be subject to thorough and effective environmental
impact assessments to ensure that Europe’s most valuable forests are not lost in the
numbers game of quantity rather than quality.
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