Global Forest Watch Frontier Forests

This shapefile provides the boundaries and degree of threat of frontier forests across the world, as published in "The Last Frontier Forests: Ecosystems and Economies on the Edge." Frontier forests are defined as being primarily forested; of sufficient size to support viable populations of the full range of indigenous species associated with that particular forest ecosystem given periodic natural disturbance episodes; and exhibiting a structure and composition shaped largely by natural events, as well as by limited human disturbance from traditional activities. Frontier forests are relatively unmanaged, are home to most if not all of the species associated with that ecosystem type, are dominated by indigenous tree species associated with that ecosystem type, and are characterized by mosaics of forest patches representing a range of seral stages, in areas where such landscape heterogeneity would be expected to occur under natural conditions.