Vitality

Forest ecosystem condition

Major pressures affect the forest and their ecosystems. The European member states record the following forest health indicators in a harmonised way: tree crown condition, soil condition and foliar nutrient content.

Foliar nutrient condition

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Main disturbances on forest ecosystems

The main disturbances on forests comprise forest fires, diseases, insects and storms.

Forest area affected by fires, k ha

Deforestation

Deforestation is defined as the permanent conversion of forest land to agriculture, grassland, wetland and urban areas. Deforestation covers forest areas where the impacts of disturbance, over-utilisation or changing environmental conditions affect the forest to an extent that it cannot sustain a canopy cover larger than 10 percent.

Deforestation, k ha

NO DATA REPORTED

Forest fragmentation

Forest fragmentation is breaking large, contiguous forested areas into smaller forest patches, separated by roads, agriculture, utility corridors or other anthropological developments.

Fragmentation is one of many factors that threaten forest health and vitality. Large and intact forest ecosystems are essential to maintaining a good forest condition and biodiversity. Increased fragmentation means that the forest area in the largest patch sizes will decrease and that the small size classes will increase.

Share of different forest patch sizes in 2018, % of total forest cover

Invasive alien species in forest ecosystems

Invasive species are a threat to the local biodiversity and ecosystem. They often have no natural enemies in the introduced area.

Number of invasive species

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Note on this: The data below is not necessarily applicable only to forests, but can have an impact on the country’s forest ecosystem.

Cumulative number of alien species

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Resilience

As a response to climate change, increased tree mortality and decline of biodiversity, the European Green Deal, EU Biodiversity strategy for 2030, and the new EU forest strategy for 2030 call for increasing resilience of forests to natural disturbances. There is no consensus on clear definition of resilience. The International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) uses the following: "The capacity of interconnected social, economic and ecological systems to cope with a hazardous event, trend or disturbance, responding or reorganizing in ways that maintain their essential function, identity and structure. Resilience is a positive attribute when it maintains capacity for adaptation, learning and/or transformation2". Forest resilience has several important components, e.g., biodiversity, adaptive capacity and connectivity. These components play an important role in making forests more resilient to disturbances. Forest management should consider all aspects of resilience and manage the possible trade-offs that may occur when forests have many users who value different things, for example recreation and timber production.

Resilience