Mapping biologically important forests - towards the restoration of a trans-European forest megacorridor
Diyana Kostovska, Krystyna Stachura-Skierczyńska, Maxim Yermokhin, Andrzej Bobiec
The high level of fragmentation and degradation of forests in Europe have caused and will continue to cause great losses in biodiversity. Although insufficient data is available on the extinction rate in European forests, it is clear that remaining populations of species, who depend on habitats restricted to natural forests, are threatened with extinction. Improving forest biodiversity conservation requires identification of the remaining near-natural forest areas as well as those with high potential to be restored to a natural state. Mapping of Europe's Biologically Important Forests (BIF) is the BirdLife European Forest Task Force's response to this challenge.
The main goal of the European BIF mapping is determining the precise location of forest areas with high nature values, which will lay the foundation for optimizing protection efforts and management of European forest ecosystems. By 2009 BIF maps will cover 7 countries and two years later the entire track from the Balkans to the Boreal region will be mapped, delineating a trans-European North-South forest megacorridor. Restoration of the ecological connectivity bridging the major forest resources of Europe from Fennoscandia to the Balkans is probably the most important conservation challenge of this kind and a necessary step in response to climate changes.
Biologically Important Forests, climate change, fragmentation, forest mapping, forest conservation, restoration of wilderness areas
Címszavazva - GE
