World Natural Heritage Ancient & Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians & Other Regions of Europe

The story about the European beech forests begins 12.000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age. Starting from these isolated ice-free refuge areas, the European beech expanded to almost the whole continent. The expansion process is still ongoing today. This phenomenon is unique in the world and is made possible by the enormous competitiveness of the beech. But human intervention has caused the natural European beech forests to largely disappear. Primeval beech forests are extremely rare today and they are endangered. The uniqueness and worthiness of protection of untouched beech forests has been recognized by UNESCO as a World Natural Heritage. Kalkalpen National Park and Dürrenstein Wilderness area are part of this World Heritage property and represent Austria´s first and only UNESCO World Natural Heritage. The World heritage property “European beech forests” includes a total of 41 protected areas within 12 European countries.
More information: www.weltnaturerbe-buchenwaeld... whc.unesco.org/en/list/1133/
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