Carpathian Primeval Forests
Property names are listed in the language in which they have been submitted by the State Party.
Slovakia (Europe and North America)
Date of Submission: 12/06/2002
Criteria:
(x)
Category:
Natural
Submission prepared by:
Ministry of the Environment of the Slovak Republic
Ref.: 1736
Description
The locality consists of the series of nature reserves of the Carpathian primeval forests on the territory of the Slovak Republic. The primeval forests (or remnants of the primeval forests) are the latest stage of the thousands years lasting development of forests, which are at present the examples of an autochthonous forest developing continually only under the influence of natural factors; practically without any interference of man. There are at least 74 Primeval Forests Reserves on the territory of the Slovak Republic covering the total area of over 14,639 ha, with the buffer zone of another 21,060 ha.
As a whole, they create a natural phenomenon - a chain of "islands" (spots) of the autochthonous natural forest from the lowest (first) up to the highest (seventh) forest vegetation degree in lowlands, hilly lands, higher uplands, mountains and high mountains. Thus, this is a unique and rare case of vertical vegetation zonation with wide occurrence of primeval forests on the relatively small territory of Slovakia (48,981 km). The occurrence of individual primeval forests in Slovakia varies significantly in terms of both the altitude - from 103 m to 2,496 m and area - from 4 to 1,800 ha.



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