Héron © Drazen_ - iStockphoto.com.jpg
Parc Naturel des Hautes Fagnes © Screeny - shutterstock.com.jpg
Bois de Cambre © Koverninska Olga - shutterstock.com.jpg

Expanding forests

Belgium's very humid climate and flat topography favor abundant natural vegetation of meadows, moors and deciduous trees. But Belgium's heavy urbanization has altered the original biodiversity, contributing to the fragmentation of this vegetation, especially in the center of the country. Surprisingly, despite the massive spread of cities, Wallonia's forest area only increased between 1866 and 2006, as the abandonment of agricultural crops allowed nature to reclaim its rights. Almost 80% of Belgium's forests are located in the Walloon region, where around a third of the territory (32%) is under forest cover, while Flanders is relatively sparsely wooded, and over 60% of Walloon forest is located in the Ardennes. As a result, Belgium's forests now cover 692,916 hectares, or 2% of the country's surface area. In 140 years, it has grown from 315,648 to 544,800 hectares. The forests include many broadleaf trees: beech, ash, oak, sycamore maple, birch, poplar, hornbeam, cherry and alder, as well as weeping willows and reeds along canals, rivers, ponds and puddles. Wood hyacinths, honeysuckle, impatience (also known as wood balsam) and euphorbia are also found. Mushrooms are represented by over 1,000 species, as their preferred habitat is the forest.

A fauna of European forests

As in France, Belgium's wild forests are home to deer, wild boar, foxes, roe deer, badgers, weasels, ermines, polecats, martens, rabbits, hares, squirrels, elks and fallow deer. More rarely, lynx, wild cats and now beavers, otters and even wolves have been spotted! The bear has completely disappeared and has not been reintroduced. Yet genetic studies have shown that descendants of the Belgian brown bear still inhabit the forests of northern and southern Europe today. The fragile ecosystems of freshwater ponds and pools are home to fish such as the protected bouvière, as well as amphibians. The latter, however, are threatened with extinction due to pollution and the appearance of exotic predatory species such as the carp. The Forêt de Soignes is also home to fourteen species of bat, most of which are endangered.

A rich avifauna

A hundred species, sedentary or migratory, inhabit Belgium but the population is unfortunately decreasing. In 2019, Belgium has experienced a titmouse hecatomb due to the massive use of pesticides. The birds suffer, in general, from the use of agrochemicals and disappear from the Belgian and French countryside. Common species are also found in France, such as robins, passerines, finches, crow warblers, magpies, herons, jays, ducks and moorhens. The rivers welcome many migratory water birds. We can mention geese in winter and several species of birds of prey, especially along the Yser, a coastal river that serves as a regional migratory corridor for birds. We can mention the common buzzard, the hobby falcon, the peregrine falcon, the kestrel, the marsh harrier, the sparrowhawk or the grey harrier.

The Flanders otter is slowly reappearing

The Flanders otter, officially classified as an extinct species in the 1980s, persecuted for centuries and victim of poisoned bait for muskrats, has seen its habitat degraded or disappear. A glimmer of hope shone to everyone's surprise in 2011, when a footprint in the snow in the Province was validated on the web portal of Natagora(www.observations.be), the association for the protection of nature in the French and German speaking parts of Belgium. In 2014, a new trace of its presence was certified in Wallonia but classified as "secret-defense" to preserve the tranquility of this so shy species. It has finally reappeared officially according to a study published in 2017 by the Belgian Institute for Nature and Forest Research. A young otter was observed in the northern part of the Scheldt Valley, some 20 kilometers from Zeeland Flanders. It probably comes from the Netherlands, where it has been reintroduced.

The beaver repopulates the rivers

The European beaver has also been gradually recolonizing the banks of Belgian rivers for several decades. Disappeared from Belgium in the 19th century, it was exploited for its meat and for the beaver gum, a secretion used in perfumery, which it produces to mark its territory and waterproof its coat. Several illegal releases of German beavers by activists in the 2000s have allowed the species to repopulate Wallonia. We can estimate that the current population is about 2,000 beavers on nearly 600 territories! Its defenders mention the important role of the largest rodent in Europe for biodiversity as well as its positive impact on tourism in certain regions. Its detractors point out the damage it causes, notably the canals and dams they build to facilitate their access to food, and the digging of burrows in the banks. Beavers are protected by a European directive that prohibits killing, capturing or disturbing them.

The wolf reintroduces itself in Belgium

Another species that has been extinct for more than a century now points its snout in Belgium: the wolf. Two hunters from Nassogne, (province of Luxembourg) are formal: they saw a first wolf in October 2016. In January 2018, a wolf from Germany was observed in Flanders. Other testimonies will locate the very mobile canid in the High Fens, encouraging nature conservationists to create the "Wolf Network" in July 2018. According to specialists, the presence of game in the forests of the Ardennes Massif in the southeast of the country would encourage the large predator to cross borders: it is also present in France (Italian-Alpine lineage) and Germany (Polish lineage). Belgium is located at the crossroads of the two dispersal routes of these populations. Its recent presence in the Netherlands and in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg suggested its imminent return to Belgium. This is now a fact! As soon as the first Belgian wolf arrived, the Department of Nature and Forestry (DNF), the Department of the Study of the Natural and Agricultural Environment (DEMNA), the representatives of the breeders, the hunters and the representatives of the naturalists had decided to propose five names: Fagnus, Wolfgang, Akela, Romulus or Lucky. In the end, the internet users will not have to choose because in 2019 - barely two years after the first report - it is now five wolves that have been spotted in Wallonia! At least one has taken up residence there, the others are very mobile - for the time being - in search of prey. The Wolf Network hopes that a pack will soon be established and that a real management plan will be implemented.

In the south and east of the country, the Ardennes Massif

It consists mostly of swamps and forests. The latter are composed of conifers (mainly spruces, but also pines and firs) and deciduous trees (maples, birches, oaks and beeches). The High Fens Nature Park is one of the most beautiful in the country. There are many animals, such as owls, various lizards and birds. You can also meet, in the south of the country, roe deer, wild boar and even (if you are very lucky) the black grouse, an endangered bird that has been reintroduced since spring 2018 in the region, like the wolf!

To the west, the coastline

The coastline gives a clay soil much richer than in the north and creates these landscapes of polders, sandy beaches ... The coastline is planted with thorny in the sandy dunes. On the eroded sandy slopes, larches, Scots pines and ferns grow in abundance. The Westhoek reserve and especially the Het Zwin reserve are real bird haunts: waders, ducks, swans, geese, etc. A dozen other reserves, scattered throughout Belgium, are dedicated to the preservation of animal and plant species(www.idearts.com/loisir/nature).

In the center of the country, the forest of Soignes

It is the large plains that predominate, allowing intensive agriculture. The only remaining forest that is not cultivated or urbanized is the Soignes forest. This forest, on the south-eastern outskirts of Brussels, of about 5,000 hectares if one also counts the surrounding woods, is neither a park nor a reserve. It is, however, one of the largest peri-urban forests in Europe, but it is only the remnant of the vast forest that once covered a good part of Brabant and Northern France. It has a role as the capital's "green lung", a place for family walks and green outings, as it represents 60% of Brussels' green spaces open to the public. Since 2017, 270 hectares are even classified as World Heritage by UNESCO because it is a forest of beech trees planted in the seventeenth century. It was originally intended to provide high quality wood. The stands are constantly thinned, but without clear-cutting, in order to favor the most beautiful trees that will then sell the best. It is a monoculture forest composed of nearly 80% beech trees from plantations or natural regeneration, and 10% oak trees. The high forests of the massif are nicknamed "the cathedral beech forest" because the trees are so tall and form a tight canopy that allows little light to filter through. Unfortunately, this fantastic beech forest is in danger. The cause? Global warming. It will probably be necessary to replace the beech trees by other more adapted species. In this forest, you can visit the beautiful Bois de la Cambre, which extends into Brussels, theTervuren arboretum, the Jean Massart botanical garden in the Rouge-Cloître domain and the Solvay domain in La Hulpe.