Making room for more life - restoration of former production beech forest into functioning and connected habitat

Introduction

The project focuses on temperate broadleaved forest in northern and western Europe, using the Swedish and Belgian beech-dominated forests as a case study. The emphasis is on beech-dominated Annex I habitats:

1. 9110 Luzulo-Fagetum beech forests
2. 9120 Atlantic acidophilous beech forests (with Ilex and sometimes also Taxus in the shrub layer)
3. 9130 Asperulo-Fagetum beech forests

Additionally, it includes similar Annex I habitats:

1. 9020 Fennoscandian hemiboreal natural old broad-leaved deciduous forests (Quercus, Tilia, Acer, Fraxinus, or Ulmus) rich in epiphytes
2. 9160 Sub-Atlantic and medio-European oak or oak-hornbeam forests of the Carpinion betuli

Conservation Status

All of these Annex I habitats have an unfavourable conservation status both in Sweden and Belgium, as well as in many other parts of Europe (in continental, boreal, and Atlantic biogeographical regions).

Challenges Faced

These habitats face very similar challenges, including:

• Loss of habitat – fragmentation and isolation
• Lack of heterogeneity and dead wood in woodlands previously used for commercial forestry (structure, composition, and functionality)
• Loss of species
• Lack of ambassadors and public awareness