EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - UNESCO World Heritage

94 NOMINATION DOSSIER "ANCIENT BEECH FORESTS OF GERMANY"
Tab. 3.3: Current distribution
of European lowland beech
forests (WINTER 2005,
figures estimated).
Country
Lowland beech forests
(ha)
Sweden 50,000
United Kingdom 58,000
Denmark 72,000
Netherlands 10,000
Belgium 50,000
(planar and montane?)
France 140,000
(planar and montane?)
Germany 270,000
Poland 50,000
Sum 750,000
as the downs and mountainous regions of
Central and South Europe are potentially
covered by Fagus sylvatica forests. In Southern
Europe, e. g. Sicily, they are found in the
form of the upper forest belt in the Nebrodi
National Park at altitudes over 1,200 above
sea level. In total, 86 diff erent mapping
units can be diff erentiated (BOHN et al.
2002 / 2003).
Th e European beech forests have been exploited
to such a degree during the past
millennia that they could survive in their
natural shapes only in some inaccessible
pockets, isolated, and frequently in peripheral
zones. Th e primeval forests that still exist
at a small scale are therefore located in particular
in the mountain ranges of the
Carpathians and hence at the eastern border
of their natural range rather than in the
Fagus sylvatica core habitat.
Particularly endangered on a global scale are
the lowland beech forests with a potential
total area of about 93,000 km 2 in Europe.
How ever, there is a maximum of only
7,500 km 2 left dispersed and fragmented
throughout Europe, with some 2,700 km 2
of which being located in Germany, which
consequently bears great responsibility
for the preservation of large-area lowland
beech forests (tab. 3.3).
Alongside with the lowland beech forests,
Germany also assumes a special obligation
to preserve the oligotroph to mesotroph
European beech forests. Of the Fagus sylvatica
forests’ potential natural distribu tion range
totalling 907,000 km², about 361,000 km²
or 40% belong to this trophic level (BOHN
et al. 2002 / 2003). In Germany, the portion
of these forests potentially amounts to
approx. 130,000 km². Consequently, about
one-third of the European population
of “species-poor” beech forests is covered
by Germany alone, hence representing
the world's centre of this beech forest type
(PANEK 2008). Germany bears globally
extraordinary responsibility for two
variants of this type, i. e. the Central European
and the Subatlantic “Luzula luzuloides
beech forests”, as their distribution is restric
ted to the German territory. Th e nominated
component part Kellerwald is representative
of the Subatlantic type.
World Heritage properties in the
deciduous forest regions of Europe
(Source: Natural site datasheet from
World Conservation Monitoring Centre,
www.unep-wcmc.org)
Six World Heritage properties with non-coniferous
forests are contained in the nemoral
decid uous forest regions of Europe.
Beside the "Primeval Beech Forests of the
Carpathians", which are to be complemented
by the nominated component parts, other
regions with relevant beech forest fractions
are of particular signifi cance that represent
various biogeographic regions. Th is includes
the Plitvice Lakes and Pirin sites with
“Illyrian Balkan Beech Forests” as well as
Mont Perdu with its montane portions of
the "Atlantic-West European Beech Forests".
As a consequence of the diff erent biogeographic
regions, altitudinal zones, and the
history of postglacial development, these
are markedly diff erent from the beech forests