Old-growth forests in Europe: where the last ones are

Europe’s last old-growth forests are found in a handful of regions: the beech and mixed mountain forests of the Carpathians, the boreal taiga of Finland, Sweden and Norway, the lowland forest of Białowieża on the border between Poland and Belarus, and small, often steep reserves in the Balkans, the Alps and the Dinaric mountains. Almost everywhere else the forest has been cleared, replanted or managed for timber at least once.

How much is left

The most complete European overview so far is a study published in 2018 in Diversity and Distributions (Sabatini et al., 2018). It brought together existing maps of primary forest from 32 countries and found about 1.4 million hectares of known primary forest, which is roughly 0.7 per cent of Europe’s forest area. The authors also noted that more unmapped remnants probably exist in the least accessible and least populated areas. Since then, national inventories have added sites, so treat the figure as an order of magnitude rather than a final count.

The pattern behind the numbers is simple: forests survived where people found it hard or unprofitable to reach them. That is why the topic of this guide is closely linked to roads and remoteness, which we cover in why roads drive forest loss.

The terms, kept apart

Words for wild forest are used loosely in travel writing. This guide uses them like this:

Term	Meaning	Typical example
Primeval or primary forest	Never cleared, no clearly visible signs of human use, natural processes intact	Strict reserves in the Carpathians and Białowieża
Old-growth forest	Late development stage: old and very large trees, deadwood in all stages, many age classes	Primary forest, but also long-abandoned managed forest
Natural forest development	Former commercial forest left to itself, often in national park core zones	Large parts of German national parks
Managed or planted forest	Trees grown and harvested for timber	Most forest in Europe

If you want to judge a forest yourself, our checklist on how to recognise an old-growth forest explains the signs, from deadwood to lichens.

Where Europe’s old-growth forests are

The Carpathians

The arc of the Carpathians through Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine and Romania holds the largest share of Central and Eastern Europe’s primary forest. Beech dominates lower slopes, with spruce and fir higher up. Several of these forests are part of a transnational UNESCO World Heritage site for ancient and primeval beech forests. See our guide to the Carpathian beech forests.

Białowieża

Białowieża Forest is the best-known lowland old-growth forest in Europe and home to free-ranging European bison. The Polish side is a national park with a strict reserve that can only be entered with a licensed guide. Our Białowieża visitor’s guide covers access and current restrictions near the border.

The boreal north

Northern Finland, Sweden and Norway still hold large areas of near-natural pine and spruce forest, often mixed with mires and lakes. Some of the oldest forests here are in national parks in Lapland and along the Swedish High Coast. More in taiga forests of Scandinavia and Finland.

Mountain remnants in the south and west

Smaller primary forests survive in the Balkans (for example in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Albania), in the Dinaric Alps, in a few Alpine valleys and on some steep slopes in Austria and Italy. They are often small, hard to reach and poorly signposted, which is part of the reason they survived.

Germany and the West

Western and Central Europe have almost no primary forest left. What you find instead are national parks where former commercial forest has been left to develop naturally for decades, such as the Bavarian Forest. These are excellent places to see how a forest changes when nobody intervenes. See wilderness areas in Germany.

Protection does not always mean access

The 2018 study found that most known primary forests are protected in some way, but only about half of them strictly. For visitors this means:

• Strict reserves are often closed or open only with a licensed guide.
• National parks usually have a core zone with a path requirement and buffer zones with more freedom.
• Camping and campfires are usually forbidden inside protected forests, even in countries with a general right to roam.
• Rules can change at short notice, for example after storms, during bird breeding seasons or near international borders.

The managing authority’s website is always the reliable source. Information in travel blogs, including ours, is a starting point.

How to plan a visit

1. Pick a park with infrastructure. Visitor centres, marked trails and guided walks make it easier to see real old-growth without trampling it.
2. Book guides early. Where entry is guided only, group sizes are small and slots fill up in summer.
3. Travel light on the land. Stay on trails, take everything back out and leave deadwood where it lies: it is the forest’s most valuable habitat.
4. Go outside peak season. Late spring and autumn bring fewer visitors and, in beech forests, the best light.

Sources

• Sabatini et al. (2018): Where are Europe’s last primary forests? Diversity and Distributions 24(10).
• UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe.