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Old-growth forest

"Old growth" redirects here. For the Dead Meadow album, see Old Growth (album).
"Virgin forest" redirects here. For the 1985 movie, see Virgin Forest. For the 2022 movie, see Virgin Forest (2022 film).

Old-growth European beech forest in Biogradska Gora National Park, Montenegro
Cool temperate rainforest in Tasmania, Australia
First growth or virgin forest near Mount Rainier, 1914

An old-growth forest[a] is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features.[1] The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations defines primary forests as naturally regenerated forests of native tree species where there are no clearly visible indications of human activity and the ecological processes are not significantly disturbed. One-third (34 percent) of the world's forests are primary forests.[2] Old-growth features include diverse tree-related structures that provide diverse wildlife habitats that increases the biodiversity of the forested ecosystem. Virgin or first-growth forests are old-growth forests that have never been logged. The concept of diverse tree structure includes multi-layered canopies and canopy gaps, greatly varying tree heights and diameters, and diverse tree species and classes and sizes of woody debris.

As of 2020, the world has 1.11 billion ha of primary forest remaining. Combined, three countries (Brazil, Canada, and Russia) host more than half (61 percent) of the world's primary forest. The area of primary forest has decreased by 81 million ha since 1990, but the rate of loss more than halved in 2010–2020 compared with the previous decade.[3]

Old-growth forests are valuable for economic reasons and for the ecosystem services they provide.[4][5] This can be a point of contention when some in the logging industry desire to harvest valuable timber from the forests, destroying the forests in the process, to generate short-term profits, while environmentalists seek to preserve the forests in their pristine state for benefits such as water purification, flood control, weather stability, maintenance of biodiversity, and nutrient cycling. Moreover, old-growth forests are more efficient at sequestering carbon than newly planted forests and fast-growing timber plantations, thus preserving the forests is important to climate change mitigation.[6][7]


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  1. ^ White, David; Lloyd, Thomas (1994). "Defining Old Growth: Implications For Management" (PDF). Paper Presented at the Eighth Biennial Southern Silvicultural Research Conference, Auburn, al, Nov. L-3, 1994. Eighth Biennial Southern Silvicultural Research Conference. Retrieved 23 November 2009.
  2. ^ The State of the World's Forests 2020. In brief – Forests, biodiversity and people. Rome: FAO. 2020. p. 9. doi:10.4060/ca8985en. ISBN 978-92-5-132707-4. S2CID 241416114.
  3. ^ Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 – Key findings. Rome: FAO. 2020. doi:10.4060/ca8753en. ISBN 978-92-5-132581-0. S2CID 130116768.
  4. ^ Maloof, Joan (16 November 2016). Nature's Temples: The Complex World of Old-Growth Forests. Timber Press. ISBN 978-1-60469-728-5.
  5. ^ Wirth, Christian; Gleixner, Gerd; Heimann, Martin (7 July 2009). Old-Growth Forests: Function, Fate and Value. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 978-3-540-92706-8.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference mcgarvey was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference metz was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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