Natural forests are particularly valuable ecosystems. 
They are central to our human world, providing key ecosystem services without which our civilisation will be even more vulnerable to the impacts of the climate and natural crises:

• Natural forests are more resilient to climate extremes and harbor more biodiversity than managed production forests.
• They are home to many endangered species that cannot survive in the often monotonous commercial forests, such as rare birds, primary forest bats, wood-dwelling beetles, fungi, lichens, etc..
• Natural forests store more water, capture more carbon and help to cool landscapes by increasing cloud formation through evaporation.
• They are important for flood prevention, protect against avalanches and landslides, nurture and enrich the soil.
• And they contribute to our recreation, health and well-being.

In natural forests, the symbiotic network of trees and fungi in the soil (mykorrhiza) has not been destroyed by clear-cutting and is still intact. This contributes to the health and resilience of these forests, especially in times of the climate heating crisis.

Unfortunately, a large share of Europe's commercial forests are even-aged planted forests or monotous plantations, often with only one or two tree species. These less resilient production forests are now increasingly collapsing over large areas - as a result of climate-related impacts such as drought, storms, fires and beetle calamities (see the image of dying plantations in Austria to the left).

In many EU countries, it is a legal requirement to remove all trees infested with bark beetles from the forest. However, often the dead trees are also removed, on which no bark beetles live anymore. As a result, larger and larger treeless areas are created. 

However, if Europe's forests increasingly disappear, the landscapes will dry out and heat up even more – and water will become scarce for people and agriculture.

Near-natural forests, in particular old growth and primary forests, with their long-developed and well-adapted genetics, their greater biodiversity and resilience, are therefore also important to ensure a sufficient forest cover, given the increasing calamity areas.

Therefore, all remaining areas of old-growth and primary forests should be preserved and protected from logging, as set out in the EU Biodiversity and Forest Strategies, which are part of the EU Green Deal. 

This does not mean, of course, that the use of timber (in production forests) needs to be stopped as such. In view of the sometimes rather poor condition of Europe's forests and the worsening climate and nature crisis, forest management should be carried out in a more natural way and forests should be exploited less intensively – in order to preserve a sufficient forest cover and, with it, the ecosystem functions of forests for future generations.