ENVIRONMENT

Dense clusters of old-growth forests exist in patches of the Amazon basin, Southeast Asia, and the Arctic taiga. Slivers of Europe are still luxuriant with trees, too, and very old ones at that. But they’re dwindling. (Atlas Obscura)

What does Europe’s land cover look like? Use our map layer to find out.

Teachers, scroll down for a quick list of key resources, including today’s MapMaker Interactive map.

Discussion Ideas

• New research maps Europe’s “primary forests”, which account for less than 1% of forested area in Europe. What are primary forests?
  • Primary forests are more commonly called “old-growth forests” in the United States. According to the good folks at the Food and Agriculture Organization, primary forests are “Naturally regenerated forests of native species, where there are no clearly visible indications of human activities and the ecological processes are not significantly disturbed.”
    • Some key characteristics of primary forests are:
      • they show natural forest dynamics, such as natural tree species composition, occurrence of dead wood, natural age structure and natural regeneration processes;
      • the area is large enough to maintain its natural characteristics;
      • there has been no known significant human intervention or the last significant human intervention was long enough ago to have allowed the natural species composition and processes to have become re-established.
    • Tracts of primary forests are found on every continent except Antarctica, with the largest swaths in South America, central Africa, and Southeast Asia. Some examples include:
      • North America: Tongass National Forest (Alaska, United States)
      • South America: Amazon rain forest (parts of Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana)
        Asia: Shennongjia Forestry District (Hubei, China)
      • Africa: Virunga National Park (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
      • Australia and Oceania: New Guinea Highlands (parts of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea)
    • Other types of forest include:
      • naturally regenerated forests, defined as naturally regenerated forest where there are clearly visible indications of human activities.
      • naturally regenerated forests of introduced species
      • naturally regenerated forests of naturalized introduced species
      • planted forest, defined as a forest predominantly composed of trees established through planting and/or deliberate seeding.
      • mangrove forest
      • planted mangrove forest

• Where are Europe’s primary forests? Take a look at the map above for some help.
  • “Most of the primary forests for which data were available were located in northern Europe, especially” Finland, Ukraine, Bulgaria, and Romania. “The countries having the highest proportion of primary forest were Finland (2.9% of national territory), Switzerland, Lithuania, Slovenia and Bulgaria (each about 0.5%.”
    • Big Caveat: The data did not include all forested land in Europe. In particular, data was missing for the vast taiga forests of Russia. Latvia, Belarus, Moldova, Ireland, Sweden, Austria, the UK, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia also had incomplete or scattered information.
  • Overall, primary forests are are “small parcels—the median was 24 hectares, or roughly 0.09 square miles—largely scattered in northern latitudes, far from roads and among rugged terrain. Remote location and low density also makes it likely that the lumber industry hadn’t rumbled through town.”

• Why are stands of primary forests important for European ecology?
  • Primary forests are crucial habitats for many endemic species. The paper describes the western capercaillie, a grouse found in forested areas throughout northern Eurasia. One study found “that when the bird’s habitat in Slovakia’s Low Tatra mountains decreased by 7,000 hectares, the population plummeted by 40 percent.”
  • Primary forests have been in the news recently due to an international dispute over land use in the Białowieża Forest, a primary forest in northeastern Poland. A massive logging project, ostensibly to combat a beetle infestation, felled more than 100,000 trees in Białowieża. The project ended (at least temporarily) last month, when the European Court of Justice found that the logging of primary forests was illegal. Get a short introduction to this fascinating land-use case from the good folks at Geographical.

• Our headline refers to Europe’s primary forests as “fairytale forests.” Why? What fairy tales are set in European forests?
  • So many! It’s difficult to think of a European fairy tale that doesn’t include at least one scene in a dark, mysterious forest. You’re likely to meet some interesting folks there.
    • Hansel and Gretel meet a witch in the forest.
    • Snow White met seven dwarfs in the forest.
    • Little Red Riding Hood meets a wolf in the forest.
    • Goldilocks meets three bears in the forest.
    • Operatic Germans meet dwarfs, dragons, Norse gods and goddesses, and assorted valkyries in the forest.

TEACHERS TOOLKIT

Atlas Obscura: Where Are Europe’s Last Fairytale Forests?

Nat Geo: Land Cover map

(extra credit) Diversity and Distributions: Where are Europe’s last primary forests?