EEA Technical report No 9/2006 European forest types Categories and types for sustainable forest management reporting and policy ISSN 1725‑2237 EEA Technical report No 9/2006 European forest types Categories and types for sustainable forest management reporting and policy Cover design: EEA Layout: EEA Legal notice The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the official opinions of the European Commission or other institutions of the European Communities. Neither the European Environment Agency nor any person or company acting on behalf of the Agency is responsible for the use that may be made of the information contained in this report. All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the copyright holder. 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Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2006 ISBN xxxxxxxxxx ISSN 1725‑2237 © EEA, Copenhagen, 2007 2nd edition, May 2007 European Environment Agency Kongens Nytorv 6 1050 Copenhagen K Denmark Tel.: +45 33 36 71 00 Fax: +45 33 36 71 99 Web: eea.europa.eu Enquiries: eea.europa.eu/enquiries Contents Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... 8 Executive summary .................................................................................................... 9 1 Reporting on sustainable forest management in Europe ...................................... 11 1.1 Political framework ...........................................................................................11 1.2 Forest types and forest biodiversity assessment ..................................................12 1.3 Forest types: definition and requirements for MCPFE reporting ...............................12 2 The diversity of European forests ......................................................................... 15 2.1 Natural determinants .......................................................................................15 2.2 The anthropogenic footprint ..............................................................................15 3 Current and potential forest vegetation in Europe: an assessment ....................... 21 3.1 Forest cover maps ...........................................................................................21 3.2 Cross‑analysis of forest vegetation maps ............................................................22 4 European forest types: the classification system .................................................. 26 4.1 Limitations of earlier forest classifications ............................................................26 4.2 European forest types: the classification scheme ..................................................26 4.2.1 Development of the classification ............................................................26 4.2.2 Classification structure ..........................................................................27 4.3 Criteria of the classification ...............................................................................29 5 Key to the classification ....................................................................................... 32 6 European forest types nomenclature: category and types descriptions.................35 6.1 Boreal forest ..................................................................................................39 6.1.1 Spruce‑dominated boreal forest .............................................................40 6.1.2 Pine‑dominated boreal forest ................................................................42 6.2 Hemiboreal forest and nemoral coniferous and mixed broadleaved‑coniferous forest 43 6.2.1 Hemiboreal forest ................................................................................43 6.2.2 Nemoral Scots pine forest .....................................................................44 6.2.3 Nemoral spruce forest ..........................................................................44 6.2.4 Nemoral Black pine forest ......................................................................44 6.2.5 Mixed Scots pine‑birch forest .................................................................44 6.2.6 Mixed Scots pine‑pedunculate oak forest .................................................44 6.3 Alpine coniferous forest ....................................................................................45 6.3.1 Subalpine larch‑arolla pine and dwarf pine forest ......................................46 6.3.2 Subalpine and mountainous spruce and mountainous mixed spruce‑silver fir forest ..........................................................................47 6.3.3 Alpine Scots pine and Black pine forest ....................................................48 6.4 Acidophilous oak and oak‑birch forest .................................................................50 6.4.1 Acidophylous oakwood ..........................................................................50 6.4.2 Oak‑birch forest ...................................................................................50 6.5 Mesophytic deciduous forest ..............................................................................51 6.5.1 Pedunculate oak‑hornbeam forest ..........................................................52 6.5.2 Sessile oak‑hornbeam forest .................................................................52 6.5.3 Ashwood and oak‑ash forest ..................................................................53 6.5.4 Maple‑oak forest ..................................................................................54 6.5.5 Lime‑oak forest ....................................................................................55 6.5.6 Maple‑lime forest .................................................................................55 6.5.7 Lime forest ..........................................................................................55 6.5.8 Ravine and slope forest .........................................................................56 6.5.9 Other mesophytic deciduous forests ........................................................56 European forest types 5 Contents 6.6 Beech forest ....................................................................................................57 6.6.1 Lowland beech forest of southern Scandinavia and north central Europe...... 59 6.6.2 Atlantic and subatlantic lowland beech forest ..........................................59 6.6.3 Subatlantic submountainous beech forest ................................................60 6.6.4 Central European submountainous beech forest .......................................60 6.6.5 Carpathian submountainous beech forest ................................................60 6.6.6 Illyrian submountainous beech forest .....................................................61 6.6.7 Moesian submountainous beech forest ...................................................61 6.7 Mountainous beech forest .................................................................................62 6.7.1 South western European mountainous beech forest (Cantabrians, Pyrenees, central Massif, south western Alps) ....................62 6.7.2 Central European mountainous beech forest ............................................62 6.7.3 Apennine‑Corsican mountainous beech forest ..........................................63 6.7.4 Illyrian mountainous beech forest ..........................................................63 6.7.5 Carpathian mountainous beech forest ....................................................64 6.7.6 Moesian mountainous beech forest ........................................................64 6.7.7 Crimean mountainous beech forest ........................................................64 6.7.8 Oriental beech and hornbeam‑oriental beech forest ...................................64 6.8 Thermophilous deciduous forest .........................................................................66 6.8.1 Downy oak forest ................................................................................67 6.8.2 Turkey oak, Hungarian oak and Sessile oak forest .....................................67 6.8.3 Pyrenean oak forest ..............................................................................68 6.8.4 Portuguese oak and Mirbeck's oak Iberian forest .......................................69 6.8.5 Macedonian oak forest ..........................................................................70 6.8.6 Valonia oak forest .................................................................................70 6.8.7 Chestnut forest ...................................................................................70 6.8.8 Other thermophilous deciduous forests ....................................................71 6.9 Broadleaved evergreen forest ............................................................................73 6.9.1 Mediterranean evergreen oak forest ........................................................73 Cork oak and holm oak forest ............................................................................73 Kermes and alder‑leaved oak forest ....................................................................75