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NATURE

Forest report card from Europe

Switzerland
Switzerland ranked highest of all European countries in protection of forests.  
ENN



January 26, 2000
Web posted at: 11:20 a.m. EST (1620 GMT)

By Environmental News Network staff

From Austria to Latvia, Turkey to the UK, European countries received failing marks in forestry protection in report cards issued by the World Wide Fund for Nature.

Switzerland ranked highest of 20 countries graded by the World Wide Fund but scored only 62 points out of a possible 100. Denmark was the worst of the lot, scoring only 36 points.

Researchers from the nature fund evaluated the forestry performance of 20 European countries in five broad areas: forestry production, environmental care and quality, social and cultural aspects of forest care, protected areas and pollution. The report cards include detailed evaluations of each country's policies and management as well as the quality of its forests.

The average score of 20 report cards was a humbling 51 points.

"Even the highest scoring country, Switzerland, only achieves 62 out of 100," said Per Rosenberg, Head of the fund's European forest program. "This is far too low. All countries have serious improvements to make in many areas of forest care."

The homework list runs the gamut of troubles, from management of resources to air pollution to soil erosion to the wholesale destruction of forest habitats. Only two percent of Europe's forests remain in their natural state.

"There is too much focus on wood products and very little interest in the use of non-wood products," researchers note in an introduction to the fund's 100-page report. "The emphasis seems to be on quantity of wood produced rather than quality."

The report cited the refusal of foresters to allow dead wood to rot in the forest as a prime suspect in the destruction of vital habitat for plants and animals.

According to the report, eastern Europe is generally no worse, and in some cases considerably better, than its western counterparts in protecting and caring for its forests. Poland and Slovakia, for example, performed much better than France and Germany. Similarly, Mediterranean countries scored as well as, and sometimes even better than, more affluent northern European countries.

The World Wide Fund intends to publish another forestry report card in 2001 in the hope of provoking European governments and the forest sector to action.

Copyright 2000, Environmental News Network, All Rights Reserved



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RELATED SITES:
European Forest Scorecards 2000
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