EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - UNESCO World Heritage

world natural heritage list within the Balkan Highland biogeographical province (2.33.12).
They can briefly be characterised as follows: There have been 11 forest associations described
in the Pirin NP, from which four include beech forests (Ostrio-Fagetum moesiacae, Fagetum
moesiacae 10 , Abieto-Fagetum, Aceri-Fagetum). The Parangalica forest preserve famous for
the extraordinary standing volume of its forests is composed of spruce.
There are five forest preserves in the Durmitor NP: Crna Poda (devoted to the protection
of old Pinus nigra stands), Sliv Mlinskog Potoka (size: 10 ha, protection of mixed forests of
spruce and fir with beech at the elevation of 1600 m a. s. l.), Kanjon Susice (protection of firbeech
forests with sycamore), Vaskovske Stijene (protection of loose stands of Pinus
heldreichii) a Dragisnjica. The outstanding Perucica (Sutjeska NP, Bosnia-Hercegovina)
preserve does represent a mixed beech-fir ecosystem.
In the Pirin NP, the tree species composition of local forests mainly includes Pinus peuce,
P. heldreichii, P. leucodermis.
Within the Plitvice Lakes NP, there are 22 308 ha of forest which cover 75% of the Park.
The forest comprises pure, lesser-growth calciphillous stands of beech Fagus sylvatica at
lower altitudes and mixed stands of beech and fir Abies alba at higher levels. The percentages
of species are 72.8% beech, 22.1% fir, 4.7% spruce Picea excelsa and 0.4% pine Pinus
sylvestris. One area of 84 ha has never been cut.
In Albania, the beech virgin forests are Puka, Rajca (Tabaku 2000) and Mirdita
(Christensen, Hahn 2003). However, according to de Waal (2004), unlicensed felling and
sawmill businesses flourish in the mountain forests. Sixty sawmills in the above mentioned
Mirdita region were felling over 100,000 cu. m of wood annually, about 95 per cent of which
was illegally felled. Other finding of the author imply grave uncertainities for the prospective
management of the forest preserves.
• Other biogeographical provinces
2.15.05 Oriental Decidous Forest
Shirakami-sanchi (Japan): The core area of 10 139 ha encompasses the last remaining area
of primeval Siebold’s beech forest (Fagus crenata B.). It is the largest beech virgin forest
remaining in the East Asian Region. However, Fagus crenata constitutes a different species
isolated from the region of Fagus sylvatica, which followed its own phylogenetic path. Beside
that, Fagus crenata attains maximum heights of some 29 m (Ohtani et al. 2001) in the region,
10
The populations belonging to the putative taxon Fagus moesiaca Czeczott seem to form an independent group
acc. to Comps et. al. (1999).
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