Germany is losing its forests, FAST. In the central Harz region, over 90 percent of spruce trees are dead or dying because of climate change and insect damage. But this isn’t necessarily bad news. Instead of the former monoculture forest, a more resilient, wild forest is springing up, with a more abundant ecosystem.

#climatechange #barkbeetle #PlanetA

We’re destroying our environment at an alarming rate. But it doesn’t need to be this way. Our new channel Planet A explores the shift towards an eco-friendly world — and challenges our ideas about what dealing with climate change means. We look at the big and the small: What we can do and how the system needs to change. Every Friday we’ll take a truly global look at how to get us out of this mess.

Follow Planet A on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dw_planeta?la…

Credits:
Reporter: Kiyo Dörrer Video Editor: Frederik Willmann Camera: Marco Borowski
Supervising Editors: Michael Trobridge, Malte Rohwer-Kahlmann Fact-Check: Alexander Paquet Thumbnail: Em Chabridon

Read more:

Background information on Harz National Park (in English):
https://en.harzinfo.de/pure-nature/th…
https://www.nationalpark-harz.de/en/p…

Managing bark beetle outbreaks, Policy Brief by Forest Europe:
https://foresteurope.org/wp-content/u…

Study on Bark Beetle Outbreaks in Europe: State of Knowledge and Ways Forward for Management https://www.researchgate.net/publicat…

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:38 History of the forests
1:25 Why spruces are everywhere
3:30 Enter: The bark beetle
5:19 Bark beetle central
8:31 The forestry’s approach
12:12 Conclusion

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