The forestry company SCA cut down forests with the critically endangered wood moss, Cephalozia macounii. The forest area is called Stor-Gravberget and is located approximately 10 km west of Ånge in Västernorrland County. The deforestation/logging was a violation of all nature conservation criteria in the FSC standard. It was a violation of Swedish law, because this moss is listed in Annex 2 of the Habitats Directive and protected according to §8 of the Species Protection Ordinance. It was thereby also a breach of EU legislation. Cephalozia macounii is also protected by the Bern Convention on the Protection of European Wild Animals and Plants and their Natural Habitats.
The EU wants to get an overview of the species richness in the member countries. Therefore, through biogeographic surveys in an environmental monitoring program, the EU follows the progress of species and habitat types.
The growth site of the moss Cephalozia macounii was destroyed
Cephalozia macounii is one of the species included in this biogeographical follow-up. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature, IUCN, gives the Cephalozia macounii the designation CR – critically endangered. Cephalozia macounii is, according to the Species Observation System, artfakta.se, a very small (0.2-0.3 mm wide), yellow-green leaf liver moss. It has deeply bilobed leaves with very narrow and brush-like leaf tips, which are only 2-3 cells wide at the base. During a biogeographic survey in 2013 of the forest on Stor-Gravberget, inventors were able to write on the Species Observation System, about the Cephalozia macounii : “New for Västernorrland County”. When inventors followed up the survey in 2020, the listing in the Species Observation System was: “NOT FOUND. The premises were completely destroyed by a major clearcutting and the log was smashed during the felling”. No traces were left there of this species, which is very rare and risks disappearing in Sweden in the near future.
Better protection of Cephalozia macounii moss necessary
Neither the logging company SCA nor the responsible supervisory authorities have had safety margins and control mechanisms that prevented the felling of natural forest. Cephalozia macounii is mentioned in the Environmental Protection Agency’s manual for monitoring in protected areas of mosses and lichens worthy of protection. It is noteworthy that in 2013, when surveyors found the species, the Swedish authorities did not directly classify the forest at Stor-Gravberget as a formal Natura 2000 area, because the Cephalozia macounii is included in the international red list as critically endangered throughout the EU.
Natura 2000 areas for Cephalozia macounii
Cephalozia macounii needs protected habitat in order not to decline even more. Sweden’s commitment is, according to the EU Habitats Directive, to set aside special areas (Special Area of Conservation SAC) for the species mentioned in the Directive’s appendix 2, including wood wire moss. These special areas for the Cephalozia macounii will then be included in Europe’s Natura 2000 network, which was established to protect Europe’s most vulnerable and threatened species and habitats (European Commission 2021b).
Fragmentation of the forest threatens the Cephalozia macounii
All forest management measures and fragmentation of the forest are threats to the Cephalozia macounii, which only grows in a few places in Sweden and Finland. The Species Observation Agency writes: “Continuous reduction occurs in combination with the fact that the number of reproductive individuals is low, which means that the species ends up in the category Critically endangered (CR)”. Cephalozia macounii spreads by spores, perhaps five kilometers over a ten-year period, and can grow up to one meter. Genetic depletion is the result of the Cephalozia macounii habitats being small and far apart. This affects the ability of species to survive changes in their environment. Depletion also impairs the ability of species to adapt to a changing climate. The importance of genetic variation is mentioned in the international goals set to preserve the earth’s species richness and biological diversity. According to a study, even species that are not threatened may have already lost important genetic variation.
Fewer and fewer forests with century-old trees
Old moist and fairly dense northern, boreal, pine forest with darkened fallen coarse tree trunks is becoming increasingly rare. The rough fallen tree trunks with a soft and easily disintegrating surface, where the wire moss usually grows, are therefore also increasingly rare. The tree trunks are sometimes a hundred years old or more. A multitude of other species also live on them which, among other things, break down dead wood into pulp. This forest should never have been cut down!
Protect the Forest and the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation report the felling
Protect the Forest and the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation’s FSC complaint regarding SCA – felled natural forest with the critically endangered and protected species Cephalozia macounii (CR, §8, Habitat Directive annex 2) can be read here.
Sources:
SLU Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences’ Species facts about Cephalozia macounii (CR) here.
Assessments of conservation status of species and habitats in Sweden, listed in the Habitats Directive, to the EU over the period 2013–2018, here
Forestry at the Edge here
More on genetic variation:
It May Already be too Late To Meet U.N. Diversity Target (Carnegie Science, 2022) here
Genetic diversity goals and targets have improved but but remain insufficient for clear implementation of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework (Hoban et al., 2023) here