Forest Club model projects and sites

2. Fennoscandian and Northern European Russian Old-growth Forests

The definition of old-growth forests used in the compilation of the maps and this report is based on the following understanding. Old-growth forests are characterized by stands originating through natural successions with a significant contribution of old trees and dead wood, often with a multi-layered tree structure. History of human disturbance does not necessarily exclude forests from being defined as old-growth, especially in case of the Fennoscandian forests. These forests contain globally, regionally or nationally significant concentrations of biodiversity values (e.g., endemism, endangered or threatened species, endangered or threatened ecosystems, refugia), or are large landscape level forests, where viable populations of most if not all naturally occurring species exist in natural patterns of distribution and abundance. (See Appendix I for complete definitions used in this inquiry).

The forests covered in this investigation are the boreal forests of Fennoscandia in the countries of Norway, Sweden, and Finland as well as the boreal forests of Northern European Russia. The focus of the report is on issues affecting the boreal region of Europe but it should be noted from an ecological level that some hemiboreal forest areas are also included in the maps. The Russian areas of the investigation include the territories of four Russian administrative units: Murmansk Oblast, the Karelia Republic, Arkhangelsk Oblast, and the Komi Republic. To complete the picture some forested areas in the southwest of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug have also been included in the analysis. In Russia, the area of investigation covers in large part the entire north of European Russia (roughly north of 60 degrees north latitude), including the northern limit of the taiga up to its transition to tundra.

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