Watch now! – New video about European beech forests

Watch our new video, developed by BEECH POWER partner Kalkalpen National Park about the incredible story of expansion of Fagus sylvatica and the great value of the UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site ‘Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and 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 a few isolated ice-free refuge areas, the European beech expanded to almost the whole continent thanks to its enormous competitiveness. A unique phenomenon in the world!

However, human intervention has caused the natural European beech forests to largely disappear. Such is the case that today, primeval beech forests are extremely rare and they are endangered. In order to protect the uniqueness and worthiness of untouched beech forests in Europe, in 2007 the UNESCO World Heritage Committee designated these ecosystems in Slovakia and Ukraine as a World Natural Heritage. Today, the World Heritage property of European beech forests includes a total of 41 protected areas within 12 European countries.

Enjoy this short video available here to learn more about European beech forests. Share it with your friends and help us inspire more people to protect this incredible ecosystem!