Forest Club model projects and sites

1. Introduction

Over the last five years NGOs from Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia have joined together to undertake the important task of mapping the last remaining areas of old-growth forest in Fennoscandia and Northern European Russia in an effort to call attention to their importance and vulnerability. Leading scientists in the region have indicated the level of protection needed; however, governments, in large part, have been slow to respond adequately to ensure the protection of the most valuable and vulnerable areas. The maps complemented by this report are a compilation of existing inventory data and field studies of new primary data. They are by no means complete. The maps hope to partly fill the void of information existing on the location and qualities of old-growth forest areas in the region. This void of information can be eliminated with increased attention and resources from states and industry acting responsibly to safeguard vital biological resources.

The last remaining old-growth forests and those with high conservation value support biodiversity in the forests. They also provide an essential resource for understanding biodiversity structures and needs. Efforts to mimic landscape patterns, natural structures, and dynamics cannot be furthered without reference areas for scientists, managers, and the public to study. Relevant, correct management guidelines can only be arrived at through observance of these reference areas. It is essential for this purpose to save the last remaining patches of old-growth and those complex valuable areas which may develop into old-growth like areas in the future (Östlund et al. 1997 and Angelstam 1999).

This report serves to provide background to understand the context of the maps of the last old-growth areas of boreal Europe. This report starts off with presentation of the methodology and definitions of old-growth forests used in the development of the maps. A background on the ecological structures and dynamics of the natural boreal forest is detailed. From this background one can better understand the impacts of the historical forest use, which are presented in the next section of the report. This section also details other impacts on forests, such as pollution, mining, climate change, and illegal logging. The conservation status in each country is presented, touching the issues of current level and means of protection, status of inventories, certification, targets for protection, and mechanisms for protection. Information available on current protection status and issues affecting protection was quite various in the different countries, which led to slightly different coverage in the country sections of the report. In the conclusion of this report NGOs express their vision and demands for old-growth forest protection in Fennoscandia and Northern European Russia.

The last remaining old-growth forest areas of Fennoscandia and Northern European Russia represent a wide array of important values: ecological, economic, social, cultural, and spiritual. In this document the arguments for protection are framed in quantitative terms of number of species, currency units for compensation, hectares of protected areas, etc. These defining terms give a picture of the forest and set parameters for necessary immediate action that must be taken by the state, the industry, and the society as a whole. However, it is important to keep in mind that these numbers can in no way sufficiently represent the breadth of important values of these forests for the environment of the region and the world and for future generations which are intrinsic and often difficult to count and record on paper.

Forest near the Lake Pyaozero (Karelia Republic, Russia).
Photo: Mikhail Karpachevskiy.

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