Have fun while you visit our Tour de Forest series, treading some new trails in one of our favourite local forests. You'll be seeing the forest in all its stages, from fresh clearcut, through 6-7 year growth, 40 year mature forest, and you'll even see an old growth cedar. Please help to protect the environment by staying on the trails, especially in the newly clear cut areas, as this is when the recovering forest is particularly sensitive.
Each cache in this series bears the name of a UNESCO World Heritage forest somewhere in the world. Take some time to read about each of these special places. Ranging in size from 18 hectares (Vallée de Mai, Seychelles), to 8.8 million hectares (Lake Baikal, Russian Federation), UNESCO World Heritage forest sites have a total surface area of over 75 million hectares.
Forests cover nearly a third of all land on Earth, providing vital organic infrastructure for some of the planet's densest, most diverse collections of life. They support countless species, including our own, yet we often seem oblivious of that. Humans now clear millions of acres from natural forests every year, especially in the tropics, letting deforestation threaten some of Earth's most valuable ecosystems.
We tend to take forests for granted, underestimating how indispensable they still are for everyone on the planet. That would quickly change if they all disappeared, but since humanity might not survive that scenario, the lesson wouldn't be very useful by then. As the Once-Ler finally realizes in Dr. Seuss' "The Lorax," a crisis like deforestation depends on indifference. "UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot," Seuss wrote, "nothing is going to get better. It's not."
In hopes of shedding more light on what forests do for us, and how little we can afford to lose them, here are 21 reasons why forests are so important.
And it’s just plain relaxing to spend time in any of them — here are 11 scientific reasons why that’s true.
================================================================================
Laurisilva of Madeira
The Laurisilva of Madeira, Portugal is an outstanding relict of a previously widespread laurel forest type, which covered much of Southern Europe 15-40 million years ago. Now only a few small pockets on islands of the Atlantic Ocean exist. Madeira has the largest of them, and is believed to be 90% primary forest. The forest is mainly comprised of evergreen trees and bushes with flat, dark green leaves. It’s also referred to as a ‘laurel forest’ although not all the plants are actually from the laurel family. Today, the heritage-listed part of the laurisilva makes up about 20 per cent of the whole island.
The Laurisilva of Madeira has at least 76 types of native plants as well as the animals which rely on them.The forest completely covers a series of very steep, V-shaped valleys leading from the plateau and east-west ridge in the centre of the island to the north coast. The forests of the property and their associated biological and ecological process are largely undisturbed, and play a predominant role in the island´s hydrological balance. The property provides a wealth of ecological niches, complex food webs and examples of co-evolution of species. A range of climax vegetation communities such as the "Til Laurisilva", the "Barbusano Laurisilva" and the "Vinhático Laurisilva", have been identified within the property. Ancient trees in the valley bottoms, waterfalls and cliffs add to the experience of the values of the property. It contains a unique suite of plants and animals, including many endemic species such as the Madeiran long-toed pigeon.