Detail_Forest Day

21 March - International Day of Forests

21.03.2021 - PIENSA!-Stiftung
International Day of Forests was launched in the late 1970s by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). It reminds us that forests are complex ecosystems that play an important role in influencing the global climate.
In 2019, the United Nations General Assembly decided to proclaim a Decade of Ecosystem Restoration for the years 2021 to 2030. A century of massive destruction of nature and the environment must be followed by a decade of restoration, because ecosystems, and especially forests, are in a worrying state.

Most deforestation is taking place in the tropics and subtropics, but forests are also dying on our doorsteps. It is time to tackle the problems.

In the 1980s and 1990s, acid rain depleted the soil of many nutrients. Overfertilization is now causing major problems, asNitrogen compounds from livestock farming and industrial exhaust gases spread through the air and reach the forest soil with rain. Nitrogen is actually an essential nutrient for all living things. However, nitrogen surpluses can burden water and land ecosystems and affect the climate, air quality and biodiversity.The affected trees grow faster than normal. Unfortunately, too quickly – the health of the tree suffers and the trees become more susceptible to diseases and pests.
Foto: Hans Braxmeier auf Pixabay
Drought as a central problem
In the case of spruce, dryness promotes the proliferation of bark beetles. The resin production that healthy trees use to defend themselves against boring pests such as bark beetles comes to a standstill due to the lack of moisture.The trees are helpless against the bark beetles.

For this reason, twice as many deciduous and coniferous trees have died in the last two years as in previous years. In total, 180,000 hectares of forest have already been irreparably damaged or are dead. The condition of our forests is more than alarming.
Avoid monocultures
Due to climate change, spruce and pine monocultures no longer have a future in our country. They cannot cope with the drought.

Only a species-rich mixed forest can have a future with the changing temperature and precipitation conditions. Large, healthy and natural forests made up of native tree species are the only way to counteract the impending climate collapse of our forests. Therefore, only wilderness and natural forests that can withstand drought and climate change will have a future.
Photo: Joachim Klug on Pixabay
Wilderness and jungle
Natural forests left to themselves are, alongside less logging and more climate protection, the best answer to Germany's dying forests. Germany is still one of the greenest countries in Europe, with almost a third of its area covered by forest. But the forests are almost exclusively managed. Real primeval forests that have never been altered by humans hardly exist anymore.

But only almost untouched, wild forests provide a home for rare animals and plants, which we have already brought to the brink of extinction in Germany. In their natural state, dead plants form a large layer of humus, which also stores CO2. Without clearings, forest roads and drainage ditches, natural forests and their soils covered with moss and humus serve as important water reservoirs.

Gnarled, old trees with knotholes, caves, niches and cracked bark are irreplaceable habitats for woodpeckers, stag beetles and pine martens. Sea eagles, cranes and black storks need large, unspoilt forest areas. As do the extremely rare wild cats, some of which have now returned to our few natural forests. And in the dead wood left lying in forests, there are thousands of impressive and sometimes very rare species of beetles that depend on untouched habitats.
Spruces can live for several hundred years and oaks for over a thousand. However, most trees in our country are felled and used after a hundred years at the latest. Our forests must become wild again and the trees must be allowed to age. This is the only way that the forest, with its protective functions, can help as an important factor in our global climate problem and continue to offer us a place in nature right on our doorstep.
The Video by Black Forest Collective shows us a wilderness and nature that we must stand up for.
Quelle: Black Forest Collective
Teile diesen Beitrag:
Share by: