The anniversary interview on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the German parts of the UNESCO World Heritage Beech Forests of Europe in 2021. Interview partner is the co-founder of the East German national parks and activist of the first hour for the UNESCO World Heritage Beech Forests, biologist Prof Hans-Dieter Knapp.
The questions are asked by journalist Rebecca Bahr.
Film production:
We would like to thank underDOK Filmproduktion for going above and beyond their professional commitment.
At that time, the German nomination delegation led by Professor Hans-Dieter Knapp from Rügen succeeded in convincing the UNESCO committee to include the most valuable German beech forests on the World Heritage List.
Since then, our beech forests have been part of the "Heritage of Humanity" and are on a par with unique natural heritage sites such as the Galapagos Islands off Ecuador, the Central Amazon in Brazil and the Gondwana rainforests in Australia and many more spectacular places.
Beech forests are unique in the world. They are what the steppes are to Asia or the rainforests are to South America: Europe's wilderness, primeval home and therefore part of our European identity - but they are also one thing: a UNESCO World Heritage Site and therefore part of the heritage of all mankind.
The "UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site Ancient Beech Forests and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe" is the largest serial World Heritage Site in the world.
It covers an area of approximately 98,125 hectares and is managed by 18 European countries. Together they protect 94 parts of the site - the last remaining primeval beech forests and centuries-old areas of beech forest in Europe that have not been altered by man.
Together they document the post-glacial forest development of Europe - a natural phenomenon that can be seen nowhere else in the world as well as in the remaining beech forests of Europe.
This makes them a site of "outstanding universal value" - a heritage of mankind.
One of the 94 sub-areas is located in the heart of the Jasmund National Park. It covers an area of 493 hectares.
Jasmund represents the beech forests of the lowlands. The largest contiguous beech forest on the Baltic Sea coast covers 2,100 hectares in the 3,000-hectare protected area.
The predominant forest type is the Baltic forest barley-beech forest. It is accompanied by orchid-limestone beech forest on chalk slopes, with ash-beech forest in stream valleys, with alders, spring swamps and bogs. The beech forest dissolves into a dynamic mosaic of open areas, scrub and real primeval forest on the chalk cliffs. Due to their steepness and inaccessibility, the forests on the cliff slopes have never been utilised for forestry.
From an ecological point of view, a forest is a vegetation formation structurally determined by trees, a complex, self-regulating dynamic ecosystem of extraordinary diversity depending on climate and other site factors (Otto 1994, Schroeder 1998).
Forests are the most important terrestrial ecosystem on our planet:
- They are the most productive terrestrial ecosystem in terms of primary biomass production,
- they are the most important global carbon sink after the oceans,
- they are the most important producer of oxygen,
- they harbour an immense amount of global biodiversity.
On the one hand, forests are dependent on the climate in that they need sufficient precipitation and heat. Forests can grow anywhere, as long as there is sufficient moisture and vegetation time. Forests are only limited if there is not enough water available (dry limit) or the vegetation period is too short (polar and alpine forest limit). Between these zonal forest boundaries, forests are differentiated in their structure and composition primarily according to different climates, and only secondarily according to nutrient supply and soil moisture.
However, forests also influence the climate by
- cooling the earth's surface through shading and evaporation,
- removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and storing carbon in biomass and soil,
- balancing the material and water balance,
- contribute to cloud formation.
For thousands and millions of years, forests have performed all these and other ecosystem services without any human intervention.
According to § 2 of the Federal Forest Act, forest is defined as follows: "(1) For the purposes of this Act, forest is any area planted with forest plants. Cleared or thinned ground areas, forest paths, forest dividing and safety strips, forest glades and clearings, forest meadows, game grazing areas, wood storage areas and other areas connected to and serving the forest are also deemed to be forest." (BWaldG 2017)
Foresters traditionally distinguish between "timber land" and "non-timber land". Both fall within their understanding of forests.
"Woody ground": Any ground area stocked with forest plants, including forest areas where there are temporarily no trees (gaps and gaps).
"Non-timber floor": This includes permanently treeless areas such as forest roads, timber storage areas, forest division and safety strips as well as other areas connected to and serving the forest.
The National Forest Inventory is based on the legal forest definition.
To ensure a clear and uniform definition, an area is only recorded as forest if it is at least 0.1 hectares in size and ten metres wide.
Ancient beech forests are a very special European natural heritage. They make the central European contribution to global biodiversity. What makes them so unique worldwide?
The dominance of a single tree species, the copper beech (Fagus sylvatica), is the characteristic and at the same time the "unique" feature of this forest ecosystem. One characteristic of the beech is particularly striking: it is able to make optimum use of solar radiation and to grow even under extremely unfavourable light conditions. Only very few Central European tree species have this ability.
With its distinctive, silvery-grey trunk, the beech is extremely adaptable. It grows on calcareous, nutrient-rich sites as well as on acidic, nutrient-poor and even on moderately moist or dry, rocky soils and can survive at almost any altitude in the centre of its distribution from the coast to the high mountains. The exceptionally wide climatic amplitude of the beech ranges from 4 degrees Celsius to 12 degrees Celsius in terms of mean annual temperature and from 450 millimetres to around 2,000 millimetres in terms of mean annual precipitation.
Due to its great ecological potency, the beech has managed to colonise large parts of Europe over the last 4,000 years from small retreat areas in southern and south-eastern Europe after the Ice Age. This recolonisation is still ongoing and is a globally unique example of how a single tree species can prevail over its competitors and dominate large areas.
Despite the dominance of only one tree species, beech forests are the ideal main habitat for many native plant and fungus species (approx. 4,300) and animal species (approx. 6,700). They are therefore by no means species-poor monocultures - quite the opposite. Especially in their natural, structurally rich form, they are characterised by an enormous biological diversity, the spectrum of which is further expanded by small biotopes such as springs, moors and rocks.
European culture is deeply rooted in the beech forests. The post-glacial recolonisation of the landscape by beech ran parallel to our ancestors becoming sedentary in the Neolithic period. Beech forests were their most important source of livelihood. They provided them with firewood and timber as well as food for humans and livestock ("Fagus" from the Greek "phagein" = to eat). However, they also had an impact on people's creativity and creative endeavours. As in many other cultures around the world, nature was the inspiration for our very own cultural identity. Examples of this are our myths and legends, the influence on our language (letters, place names) and the mighty medieval cathedrals, whose hall-like construction is reminiscent of the smooth high trunks in the subdued light of our beech forests.