EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - UNESCO World Heritage

3. Justification of Inscription
The beech primeval forests once extended over approximately 40 % of the European
continent, but the remnants of pure beech natural forests are now comprised to remnants in
the Carpathians. Their ecological processes, autoregulation, homeostasis and autoreproduction
are based on undisturbed biogeochemical cycles as well as on natural species composition that
in turn evolved as a result of post-glacial climate changes and species migration. The
ecological processes ensure, among other features, an extremely high ecological stability of
beech forests in terms of both resistance and resilience, despite a simple coenotic structure.
The European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) represents the main climax tree species in Central
Europe and an important forest constituent in an area extending from the north of Spain and
the south of England and Sweden to the east of Poland, the Carpathian Arc and down to the
south of the Balkan Peninsula and the Apennine Peninsula, i. e. in the biogeographical
provinces Atlantic (2.9.05), Central European Highlands (2.32.12), Pannonian (2.12.5) and
Balkan Highlands (2.33.12). The representation of ecological processes characteristic of
Europe’s beech natural forests in the proposed serial nomination is therefore of global value
and significance.
3.a Criteria under which inscription is proposed (and justification for inscription under
these criteria):
As “natural features consisting of physical and biological formations or groups of such
formations, which are of outstanding universal value from the aesthetic or scientific point of
view” and “natural sites or precisely delineated natural areas of outstanding universal value
from the point of view of science, conservation or natural beauty”, the serial nomination
“Beech Primeval Forests of the Carpathians” is proposed for inscription under the following
criteria according to Paragraph 77 of the operational guidelines:
Criterium (ix): The serial nomination “Beech Primeval Forests of the Carpathians”
contains outstanding examples representing significant on-going ecological and biological
processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial (forest) ecosystems and communities
of their plants and animals. As a natural feature, it consists of a biological formation – climax
temperate beech primeval forests with largely monospecific canopy. The development of this
formation is an indispensable part of the phylogenetic history of the genus Fagus, which is,
given the distribution of Fagus in the Northern Hemisphere, globally significant. The
nominated series does most completely and comprehensively reflects the ecological patterns
39