Characteristics of Ecosystem Services of European Old-Growth Beech Forests

Report by Manuela Hirschmugl, Alfredo DiFilippo, Miroslav Swoboda, Coordinators of IUFRO Working Parties 4.02.05 Remote sensing, 1.01.07 Ecology and silviculture of beech, 8.01.01 Old growth forests and forest reserves, respectively

The final conference of the LIFE+ PROGNOSES project brought together leading scientists, policymakers at the European level, and national experts in the field of forest management and conservation. Based on the insights gained in the PROGNOSES project, participants discussed means and methods to implement the EU regulation on the strict protection of all primary and old-growth forests in Europe.

The conference titled Characteristics of Ecosystem Services of European Old-Growth Beech Forests took place on 2 October 2024 in Bruges, Belgium, attracted 56 participants from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Slovakia and Ukraine. It involved IUFRO Working Parties 4.02.05, 1.01.07, and 8.01.01, and was kindly hosted and supported by;  Sonian Forest Foundation (Belgium), University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), Ministry of Natural Resources and Spatial Planning (Slovenia), and INBO - Institute for Nature and Forest Research (Belgium).

Meeting website;  https://lifeprognoses.eu/

Key findings and conclusions

• Field measurements across European old-growth forests underpin their high ecosystem value including carbon storage, biodiversity indicators and leisure activities.

• Preliminary results show the feasibility of using remote sensing for pre-stratification in order to identify the remaining not-protected old-growth forests of Europe.

• Primary and set-aside forests generally provide higher ecosystem services in terms of carbon stock and biodiversity structures than managed ones. However, substantial variability between - and within- ecosystems remains across the forest network as a consequence of differences in fertility, disturbance regime and forest history.

• In terms of carbon stocks, previously managed mature forests set-aside from logging are able to recover the average biomass values comparable to those of primary forests. However, they generally lack the same amount of deadwood, oversized trees and tree-microhabitats and wildlife trees found in primary and long unmanaged forests.

• More research is still needed to clearly link biodiversity indicators with biodiversity values.

• Visitors to UNESCO sites were interviewed and showed a clear preference for unmanaged, primary and old-growth forests. Still, only ⅓ of the visitors was aware of the UNESCO World Heritage forest area they visited. Thus, more awareness raising is needed.

At the end of the conference, a debate was organized with different stakeholders on the implementation of the mapping and strict protection of old-growth forests in Europe. Although there is a lot of goodwill and effort from scientists as well as local policymakers and management authorities, identification of relics of old-growth on the local level still remains challenging. Further clarifications and efforts will be needed to reconcile competing interests.

For the remaining project duration, the publication of the results in scientific journals is among the main next steps. Furthermore, a COST action for further networking and knowledge exchange on Europe's old-growth beech forests is being prepared. The expansion and application of the results on beech forests to include also other old-growth forests, e.g. boreal forests or forests consisting of other tree species, is a main further line of activity.