--- id: terms/ecosystem-integrity about: label: Ecosystem integrity description: >- A way of describing the condition of a forest by its composition, structure, processes and stability, assessed with a framework from the Primary Forests & Climate Program at Griffith University. tags: - forests - primary forest - carbon - biodiversity - ecosystem condition - carbon accounting - forest policy term: aka: - ecological integrity - forest ecosystem integrity relations: - predicate: cites target: articles/primary-forest-definitions-data-methods domains: - ecology - climate provenance: origin: agent sources: - title: Ecosystem integrity - Primary Forests & Climate Program url: 'https://primaryforestsandclimate.org/project-themes/ecosystem-integrity/' - title: >- Policy brief: Ecosystem integrity maximises climate mitigation and minimises risk in international forest policy - Primary Forests & Climate Program url: >- https://primaryforestsandclimate.org/publications/ecosystem-integrity-maximises-climate-mitigation-and-minimises-risk-in-international-forest-policy/ - title: >- Using ecosystem integrity to maximize climate mitigation and minimize risk in international forest policy (Science Informing Policy Briefing Note 2/22) url: >- https://primaryforestsandclimate.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Ecosystemintegrity_R2.pdf - title: 'Primary Forests, Ecosystem Integrity & Climate Change - resource | IUCN' url: >- https://www.iucn.org/resources/information-brief/primary-forests-ecosystem-integrity-climate-change - title: >- IUCN COP 28 Technical Brief - WCPA - Primary Forests, Ecosystem Integrity and Climate Change url: >- https://www.iucn.org/sites/default/files/2023-11/iucn-cop-28-technical-brief-wcpa-primary-forests-ecosystem-integrity-and-climate-change.pdf - title: >- Definitions, data, and methods for primary forest assessment - Primary Forests & Climate Program url: >- https://primaryforestsandclimate.org/publications/definitions-data-and-methods-for-primary-forest-assessment/ - title: Primary Forests - Wild Heritage url: 'https://wild-heritage.org/prima/' created: '2026-10-20' reviewed: '2026-10-20' reviewed_by: >- Claude, from the sources listed; refuted against the same pages and both brief PDFs status: draft --- The Program defines it as the characteristics of an ecosystem that together describe its ability to achieve and maintain its "optimum operating state" under the prevailing environmental conditions and natural disturbances such as wildfire. A forest with high integrity is self-organising and self-regenerating. It does not rely on human management or inputs such as fertiliser. The term is also written "ecological integrity". Integrity is assessed by three factors, together with stability: - composition: the dominant canopy tree species, the presence of species found only in mature forests, and the absence of invasive weeds and feral animals - structure: vegetation density, amount of biomass and complexity of food webs - processes: productivity, nutrient cycling, and carbon uptake and storage - stability, which the Program splits into resistance, resilience and persistence Risk of loss is the inverse of stability. A 2022 policy brief by Rogers, Mackey, Kormos and colleagues argues that a forest's carbon benefit rests on its biodiversity. It was also published in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change. A November 2023 brief by the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas for COP28 makes the same argument. Biodiversity, acted on by natural selection, gives a forest its adaptive capacity and stability, and stability keeps its carbon in place. By the IUCN brief's figures, a tropical forest logged once stores about 35% less carbon than a primary one, and a logged temperate forest may store 70% less. A ton of carbon in a primary forest is not equivalent to a ton in a plantation, because the plantation is far more vulnerable and often unlikely to last more than a few decades. The 2022 brief ranks forest types by integrity. Primary forest is high on all three factors. Secondary forest is moderate, depending on time since disturbance. Production forest and agroforestry are low to moderate, and commercial plantations low. Both briefs argue that carbon accounting should distinguish forests by integrity. The 2022 brief says the existing rules, which report net changes in forest cover and treat all forests equally, encourage converting primary forest into production forest. It also says the UN System of Environmental-Economic Accounting needs estimates of ecosystem condition for its accounts to be accurate, and the IUCN brief says wider adoption of that standard would help. Cyril Kormos, an author on both briefs, founded Wild Heritage. In 2018 Wild Heritage worked with the Government of Costa Rica to get text on primary forests and ecosystem integrity into Convention on Biological Diversity decisions. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework recognises ecosystem integrity in Goal A and Targets 1, 2 and 12. A model of a forest therefore needs more than area and carbon stock. The 2022 brief says there has been no agreed framework for assessing, mapping and reporting forest condition, and offers integrity as one. Its ranking starts from the definition of primary forest in the FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment: "Naturally regenerated forest of native tree species, where there are no clearly visible indications of human activities and the ecological processes are not significantly disturbed". A 2021 Program discussion paper for the FAO, by Mackey, Skinner and Norman, notes that the definition is broadly accepted. Studies show considerable variation in how countries apply it. That puts the comparability of their primary forest figures in question. Wild Heritage uses primary forest as an umbrella term for old-growth, ancient and primeval forest and intact forest landscapes. It includes forest regenerating after wildfire and other natural disturbances.