Abstract
AbstractAimPrimary 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.LocationEurope.MethodsWe 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.ResultsData 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 conclusionsDespite 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.
Highlights
Primary forests are becoming rare as forestland globally is cleared for agriculture or put under active management (Mackey et al, 2015; Potapov et al, 2017)
We found a general increase in the number of primary forest patches from the west to the east and from the south to the north
We noted a mismatch between the total area of primary forest included in our map and the estimates reported in FOREST EUROPE (2015), possibly because these were based on the data not inherently designed for mapping primary forest, such as extrapolation from forest inventories (Italy, Norway) or remote sensing data not verified in the field (e.g., Romania, FOREST EUROPE, 2015)
Summary
Primary forests are becoming rare as forestland globally is cleared for agriculture or put under active management (Mackey et al, 2015; Potapov et al, 2017). Transboundary efforts for mapping and protecting primary forests are rare and confined to specific ecoregions (e.g., the Carpathians, the green belt of Fennoscandia) or forest types (e.g., UNESCO network of primeval beech forests) Despite these past efforts for consolidating and harmonizing information at the continental scale (Diaci, 1999; Frank et al, 2007; Parviainen, 2000), no up-to-date and spatially detailed European- wide database and map of primary forests are currently available (García Feced, Berglund, & Strnad, 2015). What are the areas with the highest likelihood of finding previously unmapped primary forests?
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