Forest Club model projects and sites

3. Methodology

The research of this project started in 1995 and was finished in 1999. The mapping, which forms the basis of this report, has been conducted at a national level. Olli Turunen (Finland), Rein Midteng (Norway), Dmitry Aksenov, Mikhail Karpachevskiy and Alexei Yaroshenko (Russia), and Fredrik Wilde (Sweden) have coordinated the national mapping efforts. The national map coordinators have been responsible for gathering relevant information and compiling it into country maps.

The mapping of the Fennoscandian old-growth forests has mainly used previously published inventories, unpublished NGO inventories and field visits as sources of information. The Russian mapping work has mainly relied on satellite images and field inventories. The Fennoscandian maps represent the first time existing information on old-growth forests compiled for the region as a whole. The Russian maps represent the collection of existing data as well as the presentation of new primary data on old-growth forests in the region.

Due to national differences of old-growth forest status and available data the criteria and methodology differ between the mapped countries. (For detailed information on the methodology and criteria see Appendix II.)

It is essential to note that the areas presented in the maps do not cover the complete range of old-growth forests and forests of high conservation value. Only those forests meeting the regional definitions of old-growth forests are included on the maps. There are certainly some areas, which meet these definitions, which were missed in collecting the inventory data. Smaller areas of natural forest, many with old-growth characteristics, were not included in the analysis due to their insufficient size. This in no way means that these forests of smaller size and other areas of high conservation value not demarcated on these maps are not valuable and that adequate conservation measures should not be taken for these areas.

Back to The Last of The Last title page

Back to Forest Club Publications page