Authors

Francesco M. Sabatini, Martin-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
William S. Keeton, University of Vermont
Marcus Lindner, European Forest Institute
Miroslav Svoboda, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague
Pieter J. Verkerk, European Forest Institute Finland
Jürgen Bauhus, Universität Freiburg im Breisgau
Helge Bruelheide, Martin-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
Sabina Burrascano, Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza
Nicolas Debaive, Réserves Naturelles de France
Inês Duarte, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa
Matteo Garbarino, Università degli Studi di Torino
Nikolaos Grigoriadis, Forest Research Institute, NAGREF
Fabio Lombardi, Università degli Studi di Reggio Calabria
Martin Mikoláš, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague
Peter Meyer, Northwest German Forest Research Institute
Renzo Motta, Università degli Studi di Torino
Gintautas Mozgeris, Vytautas Magnus university
Leónia Nunes, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa
Péter Ódor, Institute of Ecology and Botany
Momchil Panayotov, University of Forestry
Alejandro Ruete, Greensway AB
Bojan Simovski, SS Cyril and Methodius University
Jonas Stillhard, Eidgenössische Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft WSL
Johan Svensson, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
Jerzy Szwagrzyk, Uniwersytet Rolniczy im. Hugona Kollataja w Krakowie
Olli Pekka Tikkanen, Itä-Suomen yliopisto
Kris Vandekerkhove, Research Institute for Nature and Forest, Brussels
Roman Volosyanchuk, NGO "Ecosphere"
Tomas Vrska, The Silva Tarouca Research Institute
Tzvetan Zlatanov, Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Tobias Kuemmerle, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-1-2020

Abstract

Aims: Primary forests are critical for forest biodiversity and provide key ecosystem services. In Europe, these forests are particularly scarce and it is unclear whether they are sufficiently protected. Here we aim to: (a) understand whether extant primary forests are representative of the range of naturally occurring forest types, (b) identify forest types which host enough primary forest under strict protection to meet conservation targets and (c) highlight areas where restoration is needed and feasible. Location: Europe. Methods: We combined a unique geodatabase of primary forests with maps of forest cover, potential natural vegetation, biogeographic regions and protected areas to quantify the proportion of extant primary forest across Europe's forest types and to identify gaps in protection. Using spatial predictions of primary forest locations to account for underreporting of primary forests, we then highlighted areas where restoration could complement protection. Results: We found a substantial bias in primary forest distribution across forest types. Of the 54 forest types we assessed, six had no primary forest at all, and in two-thirds of forest types, less than 1% of forest was primary. Even if generally protected, only ten forest types had more than half of their primary forests strictly protected. Protecting all documented primary forests requires expanding the protected area networks by 1,132 km2 (19,194 km2 when including also predicted primary forests). Encouragingly, large areas of non-primary forest existed inside protected areas for most types, thus presenting restoration opportunities. Main conclusion: Europe's primary forests are in a perilous state, as also acknowledged by EU's “Biodiversity Strategy for 2030.” Yet, there are considerable opportunities for ensuring better protection and restoring primary forest structure, composition and functioning, at least partially. We advocate integrated policy reforms that explicitly account for the irreplaceable nature of primary forests and ramp up protection and restoration efforts alike.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Rights Information

© 2020 The Authors

DOI

10.1111/ddi.13158

Link to Article at Publisher Website

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