TY - JOUR
T1 - Where are Europe’s last primary forests?
AU - Sabatini, Francesco Maria
AU - Burrascano, Sabina
AU - Keeton, William S.
AU - Levers, Christian
AU - Lindner, Marcus
AU - Pötzschner, Florian
AU - Verkerk, Pieter Johannes
AU - Bauhus, Jürgen
AU - Buchwald, Erik
AU - Chaskovsky, Oleh
AU - Debaive, Nicolas
AU - Horváth, Ferenc
AU - Garbarino, Matteo
AU - Grigoriadis, Nikolaos
AU - Lombardi, Fabio
AU - Marques Duarte, Inês
AU - Meyer, Peter
AU - Midteng, Rein
AU - Mikac, Stjepan
AU - Mikoláš, Martin
AU - Motta, Renzo
AU - Mozgeris, Gintautas
AU - Nunes, Leónia
AU - Panayotov, Momchil
AU - Ódor, Peter
AU - Ruete, Alejandro
AU - Simovski, Bojan
AU - Stillhard, Jonas
AU - Svoboda, Miroslav
AU - Szwagrzyk, Jerzy
AU - Tikkanen, Olli Pekka
AU - Volosyanchuk, Roman
AU - Vrska, Tomas
AU - Zlatanov, Tzvetan
AU - Kuemmerle, Tobias
PY - 2018/10
Y1 - 2018/10
N2 - Aim: Primary forests have high conservation value but are rare in Europe due to historic land use. Yet many primary forest patches remain unmapped, and it is unclear to what extent they are effectively protected. Our aim was to (1) compile the most comprehensive European-scale map of currently known primary forests, (2) analyse the spatial determinants characterizing their location and (3) locate areas where so far unmapped primary forests likely occur. Location: Europe. Methods: We aggregated data from a literature review, online questionnaires and 32 datasets of primary forests. We used boosted regression trees to explore which biophysical, socio-economic and forest-related variables explain the current distribution of primary forests. Finally, we predicted and mapped the relative likelihood of primary forest occurrence at a 1-km resolution across Europe. Results: Data on primary forests were frequently incomplete or inconsistent among countries. Known primary forests covered 1.4 Mha in 32 countries (0.7% of Europe’s forest area). Most of these forests were protected (89%), but only 46% of them strictly. Primary forests mostly occurred in mountain and boreal areas and were unevenly distributed across countries, biogeographical regions and forest types. Unmapped primary forests likely occur in the least accessible and populated areas, where forests cover a greater share of land, but wood demand historically has been low. Main conclusions: Despite their outstanding conservation value, primary forests are rare and their current distribution is the result of centuries of land use and forest management. The conservation outlook for primary forests is uncertain as many are not strictly protected and most are small and fragmented, making them prone to extinction debt and human disturbance. Predicting where unmapped primary forests likely occur could guide conservation efforts, especially in Eastern Europe where large areas of primary forest still exist but are being lost at an alarming pace.
AB - Aim: Primary forests have high conservation value but are rare in Europe due to historic land use. Yet many primary forest patches remain unmapped, and it is unclear to what extent they are effectively protected. Our aim was to (1) compile the most comprehensive European-scale map of currently known primary forests, (2) analyse the spatial determinants characterizing their location and (3) locate areas where so far unmapped primary forests likely occur. Location: Europe. Methods: We aggregated data from a literature review, online questionnaires and 32 datasets of primary forests. We used boosted regression trees to explore which biophysical, socio-economic and forest-related variables explain the current distribution of primary forests. Finally, we predicted and mapped the relative likelihood of primary forest occurrence at a 1-km resolution across Europe. Results: Data on primary forests were frequently incomplete or inconsistent among countries. Known primary forests covered 1.4 Mha in 32 countries (0.7% of Europe’s forest area). Most of these forests were protected (89%), but only 46% of them strictly. Primary forests mostly occurred in mountain and boreal areas and were unevenly distributed across countries, biogeographical regions and forest types. Unmapped primary forests likely occur in the least accessible and populated areas, where forests cover a greater share of land, but wood demand historically has been low. Main conclusions: Despite their outstanding conservation value, primary forests are rare and their current distribution is the result of centuries of land use and forest management. The conservation outlook for primary forests is uncertain as many are not strictly protected and most are small and fragmented, making them prone to extinction debt and human disturbance. Predicting where unmapped primary forests likely occur could guide conservation efforts, especially in Eastern Europe where large areas of primary forest still exist but are being lost at an alarming pace.
KW - boosted regression trees
KW - forest naturalness
KW - land-use change
KW - old-growth forest
KW - primary forest
KW - spatial determinants
KW - sustainable forest management
KW - virgin forest
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U2 - 10.1111/ddi.12778
DO - 10.1111/ddi.12778
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85047447719
VL - 24
SP - 1426
EP - 1439
JO - Diversity and Distributions
JF - Diversity and Distributions
SN - 1366-9516
IS - 10
ER -