Europe's Forests Under Attack by Natural Causes and Human Activities
10/8/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Europe's forests: Under attack by natural causes and human
activities
Source: BBC News
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: October 8, 1999
Byline: Alex Kirby
The state of the Europe's woodlands is still getting worse and little
more than a third of its trees are judged to be healthy, say forestry
experts.
And while eastern Europe's pine forests are enjoying a gradual
recovery, the oak forests of the west have deteriorated in recent
years.
The findings are published in a report by the UN Economic Commission
for Europe and the European Commission, entitled "Forest Condition in
Europe".
It presents the results of the 1998 survey of forest health, the
latest stage in a process begun in 1986 and described as one of the
world's largest bio-monitoring systems.
The report says 35% of Europe's trees can be classified as healthy,
with another 40% in what it calls the warning stage. The rest, about
25%, are described as damaged, meaning they have lost more than a
quarter of their leaves.
Pollution and weather
"The results of the 1998 forest health survey show a general
deterioration of the crown condition of the main tree species.
"The main causes of the vitality losses and damage are air pollution
and extreme droughts."
The report notes:
* a steady increase in defoliation of the main tree species since
1988;
* the sharpest increase in leaf loss occurring in oak species, beech
and maritime pine, with European oak by far the worst affected at
present;
* a recent recovery by Scots pine and holm oak from their previous
decline;
* cause for concern over the condition of forest soils, as acid soils
are widespread in Europe;
* particular concern over parts of central Europe, where very acid
soils coincide with the highest air pollution and the highest rate of
defoliation.
Much of the leaf loss they observed is attributable to natural causes
like soil pathogens, parasites and weather conditions, the
researchers say.
But they say the growing defoliation rate "seems to indicate that
deteriorating forest condition is difficult to explain by natural
stress factors alone".
"Even though it is difficult to disentangle the causes for crown
condition development on a large scale, drought, air pollution
(specifically ozone exposure) and to some extent soil chemistry are
correlated with the crown condition."
The World Wide Fund for Nature carries out its own surveys of
European forests, and says they bear out the findings of the report.
Julian Scola of WWF told BBC News Online: "Europe's forests are in a
pretty bad state.
"Their area may have grown. But their health and the biodiversity
they contain are declining all the time, with some rare forest types
becoming steadily worse.
"The Mediterranean forests are in a really bad way."