Forest Club model projects and sites

Appendix II:
Criteria and Methodologies Used in the Mapping Process

Criteria and Methodology

Due to national differences of old-growth status and available data the criteria and methodology partly differ between the countries. Find below information on the used criteria and methodology.

This booklet does not provide the appropriate space for a detailed description on criteria and methodology. Please contact the different map coordinators if you have additional questions on the sources, specific areas, etc.

NORWAY

Criteria

Boundaries of the investigation
The map covers the whole country.

Definition used
The Fennoscandian definition stated in this report has been used:

"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. These forest 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."

The areas included in the Norwegian map are areas valuable for protection (conservation value) based on the fact that the areas are in a natural state that makes them valuable for species dependent on old-growth forests and/or for other reasons, which are considered valuable for protection. The areas are from official inventories done by the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), Last Chance Group (NOA) and Miljöfaglig Utredning (MFU) on behalf of the Norwegian environmental authorities (DN). The purpose of these inventories was to find old-growth forests that could be included in the Norwegian old-growth forest protection program. The majority of these areas are presented in DN-reports. In addition some forests are from areas that are proposed as part of planned national parks. Some other additional areas originate from local NGO mapping of high conservation value forests.

Size of areas
The minimum size has been 100 ha. Areas smaller than 1000 ha are shown as dots, while areas larger than 1000 ha are shown as polygons.

Protected areas
The areas shown as protected are areas protected by the Norwegian Nature Conservation Act. All old-growth forest areas protected until December 10th 1999 are shown.

Limitations
The map shows all publicly known areas larger than 100 ha. It is reasonable to believe that many old-growth forest areas, mainly on company land, are not publicly known because the forest sector is unwilling to reveal the information. In addition Norway lacks thorough national inventories of potential remaining old-growth forest areas. Unregistered old-growth areas do exist. Local NGOs have found such areas not registered in the national inventories.

It should be emphasized that there are around 200 areas of valuable boreal rainforest in the counties of North and South Tröndelag and Southern Nordland smaller than 100 ha.

Sources

The main source has been literature studies and field trips. The work is based on the results of state and NGO old-growth forest inventories (see below). These areas have been updated by field investigations conducted by the mapper and local forest groups of the Norwegian Society for Nature Conservation.

Main references

Reports from the Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management:

• DN-report 1991-1: Proposed protected old-growth forests - Central Norway
• DN-report 1991-5: Proposed protected old-growth forests - Eastern Norway
• DN-report 1992-9: Proposed protected old-growth forests - Western Norway
• DN-report 1996-7: Proposed protected old-growth forests - Northern Norway. ISBN 82-7072-242-1
• DN-report 1997-2: Boreal rainforests - Central Norway. Registration-report. ISBN 82-7072-276-6
• DN-report 1998-3: Proposed protected old-growth forests - Central Norway II. ISBN 82-7072-296-0

Reports from the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research:

• NINA-report 427: Conservation valuable coniferous forests in Möre og Romsdal.1997. ISBN 82-426-0712-5
• NINA-report 306: Conservation valuable coniferous forests in Agder. 1994 ISBN 82-426-4103-5
• NINA-report 262: Conservation valuable coniferous forests in Oppland. 1993. ISBN 82-426-0448-7
• NINA-report 006: Conservation valuable coniferous forests in central Norway. 1989. ISBN 82-426-0023-6
• NINA-report 060: Conservation valuable coniferous forests in Northern Norway. 1994. ISBN 82-426-0496-7
• NINA-report 394: Supplementary registrations in central Norway. 1996. ISBN 82-426-0655-2
• Ökoforsk report 1988:8: Conservation valuable coniferous forests in South Tröndelag. ISBN 82-7216-490-6

Reports from the NGO group Last Chance:

• NOA-report 1997-2: Inventories of conservation valuable forests in Vestfold and Vest-Agder. ISBN 82-90895-10-0
• NOA-report 1998-2: Inventories of conservation valuable forests in Telemark and Aust-Agder. ISBN 82-90895-13-5
• NOA-report 1996-1: Forest areas in Eastern Norway registered by Last-Chance.

Reports from Miljøfaglig Utredning:

• MFU-report. 1998-1: Inventories of coniferous forests in central Norway and Buskerud carried out in 1997.

Time

The mapping work was carried out between June 1st 1999 and December 10th 1999.

Map coordinator

Mr. Rein Midteng
Sagatun
N-3810 Gvarv
Norway
Tel. +47- 35 95 52 52/ 98 82 19 31
Email: rmidteng@hotmail.com / u971841@studbo.hit.no

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