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112-475: Hansel and Gretel are siblings who are abandoned in a forest and fall into the hands of a witch who lives in a bread , cake , and sugar house. The witch, who has cannibalistic intentions, intends to fatten Hansel before eventually eating him. However, Gretel saves her brother by pushing the witch into her own oven, killing her, and escaping with the witch's treasure. Set in medieval Germany , "Hansel and Gretel" has been adapted into various media, including

224-570: A Latinate word denoting a woodland, may be admitted; in a specific technical sense it is restricted to denoting the species of trees that comprise the woodlands of a region, as in its sense in the subject of silviculture . The resorting to sylva in English indicates more precisely the denotation that the use of forest intends. The first known forests on Earth arose in the Middle Devonian (approximately 390 million years ago ), with

336-464: A combination of measures aimed at increasing forest carbon stocks, andsustainable timber offtake will generate the largest carbon sequestration benefit. The term forest-dependent people is used to describe any of a wide variety of livelihoods that are dependent on access to forests, products harvested from forests, or ecosystem services provided by forests, including those of Indigenous peoples dependent on forests. In India , approximately 22 percent of

448-405: A different classification of forest vegetation is often used: tree, shrub, herb, and moss layers (see stratification (vegetation) ). Forests are classified differently and to different degrees of specificity. One such classification is in terms of the biomes in which they exist, combined with leaf longevity of the dominant species (whether they are evergreen or deciduous ). Another distinction

560-437: A few main pathways, including increase in commercial tree plantations, adoption of agroforestry techniques by small farmers, or spontaneous regeneration when former agricultural land is abandoned. It can be motivated by the economic benefits of forests, the ecosystem services forests provide, or cultural changes where people increasingly appreciate forests for their spiritual, aesthetic, or otherwise intrinsic value. According to

672-511: A forest as, "Land spanning more than 0.5 hectares with trees higher than 5 meters and a canopy cover of more than 10 percent, or trees able to reach these thresholds in situ . It does not include land that is predominantly under agricultural or urban use." Using this definition, Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 found that forests covered 4.06 billion hectares (10.0 billion acres; 40.6 million square kilometres; 15.7 million square miles), or approximately 31 percent of

784-409: A forest may be of a great variety of species (as in tropical rainforests and temperate deciduous forests ), or relatively few species over large areas (e.g., taiga and arid montane coniferous forests). The biodiversity of forests also encompasses shrubs , herbaceous plants, mosses , ferns , lichens , fungi , and a variety of animals . Trees rising up to 35 meters (115 ft) in height add

896-550: A forested area by cutting or burning, either to harvest timber or to make way for farming. Most deforestation today occurs in tropical forests. The vast majority of this deforestation is because of the production of four commodities: wood , beef , soy , and palm oil . Over the past 2,000 years, the area of land covered by forest in Europe has been reduced from 80% to 34%. Large areas of forest have also been cleared in China and in

1008-452: A legal term, as seen in Latin texts such as Magna Carta , to denote uncultivated land that was legally designated for hunting by feudal nobility (see royal forest ). These hunting forests did not necessarily contain any trees. Because that often included significant areas of woodland, "forest" eventually came to connote woodland in general, regardless of tree density. By the beginning of

1120-403: A locale with more open space between trees, and distinguish kinds of woodlands as open forests and closed forests , premised on their crown covers . Finally, sylva (plural sylvae or, less classically, sylvas ) is a peculiar English spelling of the Latin silva , denoting a "woodland", and has precedent in English, including its plural forms. While its use as a synonym of forest , and as

1232-583: A region, releasing water from their leaves in anticipation of seasonal rains to trigger the wet season early. Because of this, seasonal rainfall in the Amazon begins two to three months earlier than the climate would otherwise allow. Deforestation in the Amazon and anthropogenic climate change hold the potential to interfere with this process, causing the forest to pass a threshold where it transitions into savanna. Deforestation threatens many forest ecosystems. Deforestation occurs when humans remove trees from

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1344-554: A role in the emergence of the motif of the wicked stepmother. Linguist and folklorist Edward Vajda has proposed that these stories represent the remnant of a coming-of-age , rite of passage tale extant in Proto-Indo-European society . Psychologist Bruno Bettelheim argues that the main motif revolves around dependence, oral greed, and destructive desires that children must learn to overcome, after they arrive home "purged of their oral fixations". Others have stressed

1456-484: A trail of white pebbles. After their parents abandon them, the children stay in the woods until night falls and the moonlight reveals the white pebbles shining in the dark. The children then safely follow the trail back home, much to their stepmother's rage. Once again, provisions become scarce and the stepmother angrily orders her husband to take the children further into the woods and leave them there. Hansel attempts to gather more pebbles, but finds his stepmother has locked

1568-492: A variant from Flanders , The Sugar-Candy House , siblings Jan and Jannette get lost in the woods and sight a hut made of confectionery in the distance. When they approach, a giant wolf named Garon jumps out of the window and chases them to a river bank. Sister and brother ask a pair of ducks to help them cross the river and escape the wolf. Garon threatens the ducks to carry him over, to no avail; he then tries to cross by swimming. He sinks and surfaces three times, but disappears in

1680-722: A vertical dimension to the area of land that can support plant and animal species, opening up numerous ecological niches for arboreal animal species, epiphytes , and various species that thrive under the regulated microclimate created under the canopy. Forests have intricate three-dimensional structures that increase in complexity with lower levels of disturbance and greater variety of tree species. The biodiversity of forests varies considerably according to factors such as forest type, geography, climate, and soils – in addition to human use. Most forest habitats in temperate regions support relatively few animal and plant species, and species that tend to have large geographical distributions, while

1792-412: A wide range of characteristics. Generally, richer households derive more cash value from forest resources, whereas among poorer households, forest resources are more important for home consumption and increase community resilience. Forests are fundamental to the culture and livelihood of indigenous people groups that live in and depend on forests, many of which have been removed from and denied access to

1904-403: Is " Finette Cendron ", published by Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy in 1697, which depicts an impoverished king and queen deliberately losing their three daughters three times in the wilderness. The cleverest of the girls, Finette, initially manages to bring them home with a trail of thread, and then a trail of ashes, but her peas are eaten by pigeons during the third journey. The little girls then go to

2016-410: Is an evil witch who had built the bread house to lure them inside so she can cook and eat them . The next morning, the witch locks Hansel in a stable and enslaves Gretel. The witch feeds Hansel regularly to fatten him up, but serves Gretel nothing but crab shells. The witch then tries to touch Hansel's finger to see how fat he has become, but he cleverly offers a thin bone he found in the cage. As

2128-401: Is based on tree densities measured on over 400,000 plots. It remains subject to a wide margin of error, not least because the samples are mainly from Europe and North America. Forests can also be classified according to the amount of human alteration. Old-growth forest contains mainly natural patterns of biodiversity in established seral patterns, and they contain mainly species native to

2240-456: Is delighted to see them safe and sound. With the witch's wealth , the children and their father all live happily ever after. Folklorists Iona and Peter Opie indicate that "Hansel and Gretel" belongs to a group of European tales especially popular in the Baltic regions, about children outwitting ogres into whose hands they have involuntarily fallen. "Hansel and Gretel" is the prototype for

2352-630: Is high compared to other vegetation communities. Much of this biomass occurs below ground in the root systems and as partially decomposed plant detritus . The woody component of a forest contains lignin , which is relatively slow to decompose compared with other organic materials such as cellulose or carbohydrate. The world's forests contain about 606 gigatonnes of living biomass (above- and below-ground) and 59 gigatonnes of dead wood. The total biomass has decreased slightly since 1990, but biomass per unit area has increased. Forest ecosystems broadly differ based on climate ; latitudes 10° north and south of

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2464-725: Is legally protected from resource development. Much more forest land—about 40 percent of the total forest land base—is subject to varying degrees of protection through processes such as integrated land use planning or defined management areas, such as certified forests. Pebble A pebble is a clast of rock with a particle size of 4–64 mm (0.16–2.52 in) based on the Udden-Wentworth scale of sedimentology . Pebbles are generally considered larger than granules (2–4 mm (0.079–0.157 in) in diameter) and smaller than cobbles (64–256 mm (2.5–10.1 in) in diameter). A rock made predominantly of pebbles

2576-543: Is not on track to meet the target of the United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests to increase forest area by 3 percent by 2030. While deforestation is taking place in some areas, new forests are being established through natural expansion or deliberate efforts in other areas. As a result, the net loss of forest area is less than the rate of deforestation; and it, too, is decreasing: from 7.8 million hectares (19 million acres) per year in

2688-793: Is notable for kickstarting the adaptions depicting the witch's house being made of gingerbread and candy instead of plain bread. A contemporary reimagining of the story, Mátti Kovler 's musical fairytale Ami & Tami, was produced in Israel and the United States and subsequently released as a symphonic album. Several writers have drawn inspiration from the tale, such as Robert Coover in "The Gingerbread House" ( Pricksongs and Descants , 1969), Anne Sexton in Transformations (1971), Garrison Keillor in "My Stepmother, Myself" in "Happy to Be Here" (1982), and Emma Donoghue in "A Tale of

2800-551: Is quite impossible to disentangle the two tales". ATU 327C ("The Devil [Witch] Carries the Hero Home in a Sack") depicts a witch or an ogre catching a boy in a sack. As the villain's daughter is preparing to kill him, the boy asks her to show him how he should arrange himself; when she does so, he kills her. Later on, he kills the witch and goes back home with her treasure. In ATU 327D ("The Kiddlekaddlekar"), children are discovered by an ogre in his house. He intends to hang them, but

2912-541: Is termed a conglomerate . Pebble tools are among the earliest known man-made artifacts, dating from the Palaeolithic period of human history. A beach composed chiefly of surface pebbles is commonly termed a shingle beach . This type of beach has armoring characteristics with respect to wave erosion , as well as ecological niches that provide habitat for animals and plants. Inshore banks of shingle (large quantities of pebbles) exist in some locations, such as

3024-428: Is that forests can turn from a carbon sink to a carbon source if plant diversity, density or forest area decreases, as has been observed in different tropical forests The typical tropical forest may become a carbon source by the 2060s. An assessment of European forests found early signs of carbon sink saturation, after decades of increasing strength. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that

3136-424: Is the children's biological mother, but she was also called "stepmother" from the 4th edition (1840). The Brothers Grimm indeed introduced the word "stepmother", but retained "mother" in some passages. Even their final version in the 7th edition (1857) remains unclear about her role, for it refers to the woodcutter's wife twice as "the mother" and once as "the stepmother". The sequence where the duck helps them across

3248-416: Is whether the forests are composed predominantly of broadleaf trees, coniferous (needle-leaved) trees, or mixed. The number of trees in the world, according to a 2015 estimate, is 3 trillion, of which 1.4 trillion are in the tropics or sub-tropics, 0.6 trillion in the temperate zones, and 0.7 trillion in the coniferous boreal forests. The 2015 estimate is about eight times higher than previous estimates, and

3360-606: The Equator , and temperate forests at the middle latitudes . Forests form in areas of the Earth with high rainfall, while drier conditions produce a transition to savanna . However, in areas with intermediate rainfall levels, forest transitions to savanna rapidly when the percentage of land that is covered by trees drops below 40 to 45 percent. Research conducted in the Amazon rainforest shows that trees can alter rainfall rates across

3472-651: The Medieval Latin foresta , denoting "open wood", Carolingian scribes first used foresta in the capitularies of Charlemagne , specifically to denote the royal hunting grounds of the king. The word was not endemic to the Romance languages , e.g., native words for forest in the Romance languages derived from the Latin silva , which denoted "forest" and " wood(land) " ( cf. the English sylva and sylvan ;

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3584-522: The Proto-Germanic * furhísa- , * furhíþija- , denoting "a fir-wood , coniferous forest", from the Proto-Indo-European * perk u- , denoting "a coniferous or mountain forest , wooded height" all attest to the Frankish * forhist . Uses of forest in English to denote any uninhabited and unenclosed area are presently considered archaic. The Norman rulers of England introduced the word as

3696-554: The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , to avoid temperature rise by more than 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, there will need to be an increase in global forest cover equal to the land area of Canada (10 million square kilometres (3.9 million square miles)) by 2050. China instituted a ban on logging, beginning in 1998, due to

3808-592: The World Resources Institute recorded that only 20% of the world's original forests remained in large intact tracts of undisturbed forest. More than 75% of these intact forests lie in three countries: the boreal forests of Russia and Canada, and the rainforest of Brazil. According to Food and Agriculture Organization 's (FAO) Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 , an estimated 420 million hectares (1.0 billion acres) of forest have been lost worldwide through deforestation since 1990, but

3920-418: The boreal region and in the seasonally dry tropics. At high latitudes, north of the main zone of boreal forestland, growing conditions are not adequate to maintain a continuously closed forest cover , so tree cover is both sparse and discontinuous. This vegetation is variously called open taiga , open lichen woodland, and forest tundra. A savanna is a mixed woodland – grassland ecosystem characterized by

4032-407: The equator are mostly covered in tropical rainforest , and the latitudes between 53°N and 67°N have boreal forest . As a general rule, forests dominated by angiosperms ( broadleaf forests ) are more species-rich than those dominated by gymnosperms ( conifer , montane , or needleleaf forests ), although exceptions exist. The trees that form the principal structural and defining component of

4144-429: The high water mark may have growths of organisms such as lichen on them, signifying the lack of contact with seawater . Pebbles on Earth exist in two types of locations – on the beaches of various oceans and seas, and inland where ancient seas used to cover the land. Then, when the seas retreated, the rocks became landlocked. Here, they entered lakes and ponds, and form in rivers , travelling into estuaries where

4256-408: The slash and burn practices of swidden agriculture or shifting cultivation . The loss and re-growth of forests lead to a distinction between two broad types of forest: primary or old-growth forest and secondary forest . There are also many natural factors that can cause changes in forests over time, including forest fires , insects , diseases , weather, competition between species, etc. In 1997,

4368-429: The 1990s to 4.7 million hectares (12 million acres) per year during 2010–2020. In absolute terms, the global forest area decreased by 178 million hectares (440 million acres; 1,780,000 square kilometres; 690,000 square miles) between 1990 and 2020, which is an area about the size of Libya. Forests provide a diversity of ecosystem services including: The main ecosystem services can be summarized in

4480-521: The 1990s. In 2015, a study for Nature Climate Change showed that the trend has recently been reversed, leading to an "overall gain" in global biomass and forests. This gain is due especially to reforestation in China and Russia. New forests are not equivalent to old growth forests in terms of species diversity, resilience, and carbon capture. On 7 September 2015, the FAO released a new study stating that over

4592-530: The Cottage" ( Kissing the Witch , 1997). Adam Gidwitz 's 2010 children's book A Tale Dark & Grimm and its sequels In a Glass Grimmly (2012), and The Grimm Conclusion (2013) are loosely based on the tale and show the siblings meeting characters from other fairy tales. Terry Pratchett mentions gingerbread cottages in several of his books, mainly where a witch had turned wicked and 'started to cackle', with

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4704-459: The Earth's plant biomass . Net primary production is estimated at 21.9 gigatonnes of biomass per year for tropical forests , 8.1 for temperate forests , and 2.6 for boreal forests . Forests form distinctly different biomes at different latitudes and elevations, and with different precipitation and evapotranspiration rates. These biomes include boreal forests in subarctic climates, tropical moist forests and tropical dry forests around

4816-639: The French " The Lost Children ", published by Antoinette Bon in 1887, or the Moravian "Old Gruel", edited by Maria Kosch in 1899. Structural comparisons can also be made with other tales of ATU 327 type ("The Children and the Ogre"), which is not a simple fairy tale type but rather a "folktale complex with interconnected subdivisions" depicting a child (or children) falling under the power of an ogre, then escaping by their clever tricks. In ATU 327B ("The Brothers and

4928-739: The Grimms' personal copy of the first edition reveals that in 1813 Wild contributed to the children's verse answer to the witch, "The wind, the wind,/ The heavenly child," which rhymes in German: "Der Wind, der Wind,/ Das himmlische Kind." According to folklorist Jack Zipes , the tale emerged in the Late Middle Ages Germany (1250–1500). Shortly after this period, close written variants like Martin Montanus' Garten Gesellschaft (1590) began to appear. Scholar Christine Goldberg argues that

5040-672: The Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese selva ; the Romanian silvă ; the Old French selve ). Cognates of forest in Romance languages—e.g., the Italian foresta , Spanish and Portuguese floresta , etc.—are all ultimately derivations of the French word. The precise origin of Medieval Latin foresta is obscure. Some authorities claim the word derives from the Late Latin phrase forestam silvam , denoting "the outer wood"; others claim

5152-414: The Ogre"), a group of siblings come to an ogre's house who intends to kill them in their beds, but the youngest of the children exchanges the visitors with the ogre's offspring, and the villain kills his own children by mistake. They are chased by the ogre, but the siblings eventually manage to come back home safely. Stith Thompson points the great similarity of the tales types ATU 327A and ATU 327B that "it

5264-452: The U.S. state of Wisconsin , forests managed by indigenous people have more plant diversity, fewer invasive species, higher tree regeneration rates, and higher volume of trees. Forest management has changed considerably over the last few centuries, with rapid changes from the 1980s onward, culminating in a practice now referred to as sustainable forest management . Forest ecologists concentrate on forest patterns and processes, usually with

5376-460: The aim of elucidating cause-and-effect relationships. Foresters who practice sustainable forest management focus on the integration of ecological, social, and economic values, often in consultation with local communities and other stakeholders . Humans have generally decreased the amount of forest worldwide. Anthropogenic factors that can affect forests include logging, urban sprawl , human-caused forest fires , acid rain , invasive species , and

5488-420: The basis of the variation of physiognomy corresponding to changes in altitude. Tropical dry forests are characteristic of areas in the tropics affected by seasonal drought. The seasonality of rainfall is usually reflected in the deciduousness of the forest canopy, with most trees being leafless for several months of the year. Under some conditions, such as less fertile soils or less predictable drought regimes,

5600-519: The beaches of the Norwegian Sea ), along the coast of the U.K. and Ireland, on the shores of Australia, and around the islands of Indonesia and Japan. Inland pebbles (river pebbles of river rock) are usually found along the shores of large rivers and lakes. These pebbles form as the flowing water washes over rock particles on the bottom and along the shores of the river . The smoothness and color of river pebbles depends on several factors, such as

5712-590: The canopy; but other taxa are also important. In the Southern Hemisphere , most coniferous trees (members of Araucariaceae and Podocarpaceae ) occur mixed with broadleaf species, and are classed as broadleaf-and-mixed forests. Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests include a substantial component of trees of the Anthophyta group. They are generally characteristic of the warmer temperate latitudes, but extend to cool temperate ones, particularly in

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5824-524: The child, he pushes her into the oven. The witch then returns home and eats her own daughter. She eventually tries to fell the tree in which the boy is hiding, but birds fly away with him. The initial episode, which depicts children deliberately lost in the forest by their unloving parents, can be compared with many previous stories: Montanus's "The Little Earth-Cow" (1557), Basile 's "Ninnillo and Nennella" (1635), Madame d'Aulnoy's "Finette Cendron" (1697), or Perrault 's " Hop-o'-My-Thumb " (1697). The motif of

5936-406: The children follow a dove to a clearing in the woods, and discover a cottage with bread walls, a cake roof, and sugar windows. Hungry and tired, the children begin to eat the house, when the door opens and the elderly woman that lives there emerges and takes the children inside, giving them delicious food to eat and soft beds to sleep in. What the children do not know is that their kind hostess

6048-423: The children live. Canada has about 4 million square kilometres (1.5 million square miles) of forest land. More than 90% of forest land is publicly owned and about 50% of the total forest area is allocated for harvesting. These allocated areas are managed using the principles of sustainable forest management, which include extensive consultation with local stakeholders. About eight percent of Canada's forest

6160-433: The children's bedroom, Hansel and Gretel have overheard them. After the parents have gone to bed, Hansel sneaks out of the house and gathers as many shiny white pebbles as he can, then returns to his room, reassuring Gretel that God will not forsake them. The next day, the children's stepmother gives them small pieces of bread before she and their father take them into the woods. As the family walks deeper, Hansel leaves

6272-496: The composition of the soil of the river banks, the chemical characteristics of the water, and the speed of the current . Because river current is gentler than the ocean waves , river pebbles are usually not as smooth as beach pebbles. The most common colors of river rock are black, grey, green, brown and white. Beach pebbles and river pebbles are used for a variety of purposes, both outdoors and indoors. They can be sorted by colour and size, and they can also be polished to improve

6384-517: The cutoff points are between a forest, woodland , and savanna . Under some definitions, to be considered a forest requires very high levels of tree canopy cover, from 60% to 100%, which excludes woodlands and savannas, which have a lower canopy cover . Other definitions consider savannas to be a type of forest, and include all areas with tree canopies over 10%. Some areas covered with trees are legally defined as agricultural areas, for example Norway spruce plantations, under Austrian forest law, when

6496-418: The density of trees, area of tree canopy cover, or area of the land occupied by the cross-section of tree trunks ( basal area ) meeting a particular threshold. This type of definition depends upon the presence of trees sufficient to meet the threshold, or at least of immature trees that are expected to meet the threshold once they mature. Under land-cover definitions, there is considerable variation on where

6608-471: The domain of a malevolent supernatural figure and escape from it. Folklorist Joseph Jacobs , commenting on his reconstructed proto-form of the tale ("Johnnie and Grizzle"), noticed the "contamination" of the tale with the story of " The Master Maid ", later classified as ATU 313. ATU 327A tales are also often combined with stories of ATU 450 ("Little Brother and Sister"), in which children run away from an abusive stepmother. According to folklorist Jack Zipes,

6720-422: The door. The following morning, the children's stepmother gives them smaller pieces of bread, before she and their father take them back into the woods. As the family treks, Hansel leaves a trail of bread crumbs for him and Gretel to follow back home. However, after they are once again abandoned, the children find that the birds have eaten the crumbs and they are lost in the woods. After three days of wandering,

6832-411: The eastern United States , in which only 0.1% of land was left undisturbed. Almost half of Earth's forest area (49 percent) is relatively intact, while 9 percent is found in fragments with little or no connectivity. Tropical rainforests and boreal coniferous forests are the least fragmented, whereas subtropical dry forests and temperate oceanic forests are among the most fragmented. Roughly 80 percent of

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6944-468: The entrance to the River Ore , England, where the moving banks of shingle give notable navigational challenges. Pebbles come in various colors and textures and can have streaks, known as veins , of quartz or other minerals . Pebbles are mostly smooth but, dependent on how frequently they come in contact with the sea, they can have marks of contact with other rocks or other pebbles. Pebbles left above

7056-563: The episode of the paths marked with stones and crumbs, already found in the French " Finette Cendron " and " Hop-o'-My-Thumb " (1697), represents "an elaboration of the motif of the thread that Ariadne gives Theseus to use to get out of the Minoan labyrinth ". A house made of confectionery is also found in a 14th-century manuscript about the Land of Cockayne . From the pre-publication manuscript of 1810 ( Das Brüderchen und das Schwesterchen ) to

7168-522: The erosion and flooding that it caused. In addition, ambitious tree-planting programmes in countries such as China, India, the United States, and Vietnam – combined with natural expansion of forests in some regions – have added more than 7 million hectares (17 million acres) of new forests annually. As a result, the net loss of forest area was reduced to 5.2 million hectares (13 million acres) per year between 2000 and 2010, down from 8.3 million hectares (21 million acres) annually in

7280-465: The evolution of cladoxylopsid plants like Calamophyton . Appeared in the Late Devonian , Archaeopteris was both tree-like and fern -like plant, growing to 20 metres (66 ft) in height or more. It quickly spread throughout the world, from the equator to subpolar latitudes. It is the first species known to cast shade due to its fronds and forming soil from its roots. Archaeopteris

7392-403: The fairy tales of the type Aarne–Thompson–Uther (ATU) 327A. In particular, Gretel's pretense of not understanding how to test the oven ("Show Me How") is characteristic of 327A, although it also appears traditionally in other sub-types of ATU 327. As argued by Stith Thompson , the simplicity of the tale may explain its spread into several traditions all over the world. A closely similar version

7504-426: The folktale complex that was reintroduced by the Grimms in later editions. Hansel and Gretel are the young children of a poor woodcutter . When a famine settles over the land, the woodcutter's second wife tells him to take the children into the woods and leave them there to fend for themselves . The woodcutter opposes the plan, but his wife repeats her demands until he reluctantly agrees. They are unaware that in

7616-417: The forest ecosystem. Since 2002, the amount of land that is legally owned by or designated for indigenous peoples has broadly increased, but land acquisition in lower-income countries by multinational corporations, often with little or no consultation of indigenous peoples, has also increased. Research in the Amazon rainforest suggests that indigenous methods of agroforestry form reservoirs of biodiversity. In

7728-407: The forest to borrow a light from her sister, who turns out to be Baba Yaga , a cannibalistic witch. Besides highlighting the endangerment of children (as well as their own cleverness), the tales have in common a preoccupation with eating and with hurting children: The mother or stepmother wants to avoid hunger, and the witch lures children to eat her house of candy so that she can then eat them. In

7840-415: The fourteenth century, English texts used the word in all three of its senses: common, legal, and archaic. Other English words used to denote "an area with a high density of trees" are firth , frith , holt , weald , wold , wood , and woodland . Unlike forest , these are all derived from Old English and were not borrowed from another language. Some present classifications reserve woodland for denoting

7952-458: The gingerbread house being a stage in a person's increasing levels of insanity. In The Light Fantastic , the wizard Rincewind and Twoflower are led by a gnome into one such building after the death of the witch and warned to be careful of the doormat, as it is made of candy floss. In 2014, Neil Gaiman wrote an expanded retelling of "Hansel and Gretel", with illustrations by Lorenzo Mattotti . Hansel and Gretel's trail of breadcrumbs inspired

8064-469: The girl pretends not to understand how to do it, so the ogre hangs himself to show her. He promises his kiddlekaddlekar (a magic cart) and treasure in exchange for his liberation; they set him free, but the ogre chases them. The children eventually manage to kill him and escape safely. In ATU 327F ("The Witch and the Fisher Boy"), a witch lures a boy and catches him. When the witch's daughter tries to bake

8176-542: The higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere , as well as some warm temperate areas, especially on nutrient-poor or otherwise unfavourable soils. These forests are composed entirely, or nearly so, of coniferous species ( Coniferophyta ). In the Northern Hemisphere, pines Pinus , spruces Picea , larches Larix , firs Abies , Douglas firs Pseudotsuga , and hemlocks Tsuga make up

8288-469: The lands on which they lived as part of global colonialism . Indigenous lands contain 36% or more of intact forest worldwide, host more biodiversity, and experience less deforestation. Indigenous activists have argued that degradation of forests and indigenous peoples' marginalization and land dispossession are interconnected. Other concerns among indigenous peoples include lack of Indigenous involvement in forest management and loss of knowledge related for

8400-493: The last 25 years the global deforestation rate has decreased by 50% due to improved management of forests and greater government protection. There is an estimated 726 million hectares (1.79 billion acres) of forest in protected areas worldwide. Of the six major world regions, South America has the highest share of forests in protected areas, at 31 percent. The area of such areas globally has increased by 191 million hectares (470 million acres) since 1990, but

8512-545: The mansion of a hag , who lives with her husband the ogre . Finette heats the oven and asks the ogre to test it with his tongue, so that he falls in and is incinerated. Thereafter, Finette cuts off the hag's head. The sisters remain in the ogre's house, and the rest of the tale relates the story of Cinderella . In the Russian Vasilisa the Beautiful , the stepmother likewise sends her hated stepdaughter into

8624-991: The montane forests of Africa, South America, Southeast Asia, and lowland forests of Australia, coastal Brazil, the Caribbean islands, Central America, and insular Southeast Asia have many species with small geographical distributions. Areas with dense human populations and intense agricultural land use, such as Europe, parts of Bangladesh, China, India, and North America, are less intact in terms of their biodiversity. Northern Africa, southern Australia, coastal Brazil, Madagascar, and South Africa are also identified as areas with striking losses in biodiversity intactness. A forest consists of many components that can be broadly divided into two categories: biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living). The living parts include trees , shrubs , vines , grasses and other herbaceous (non-woody) plants, mosses , algae , fungi , insects , mammals , birds , reptiles , amphibians , and microorganisms living on

8736-482: The name of the navigation element breadcrumbs that allows users to keep track of their locations within programs or documents. Forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense community of trees . Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) defines

8848-530: The next table: Some researchers state that forests do not only provide benefits, but can in certain cases also incur costs to humans. Forests may impose an economic burden, diminish the enjoyment of natural areas, reduce the food-producing capacity of grazing land and cultivated land, reduce biodiversity, reduce available water for humans and wildlife, harbour dangerous or destructive wildlife, and act as reservoirs of human and livestock disease. An important consideration regarding carbon sequestration

8960-653: The ocean water washes over loose rock particles. The result is a smooth, rounded appearance. The typical size range is from 2 mm to 50 mm. The colors range from translucent white to black, and include shades of yellow, brown, red and green. Some of the more plentiful pebble beaches are along the coast of the Pacific Ocean , beginning in Canada and extending down to the tip of South America in Argentina. Other pebble beaches are in northern Europe (particularly on

9072-405: The opera Hänsel und Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck , which was first performed in 1893. Although Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm credited "various tales from Hesse " (the region where they lived) as their source, scholars have argued that the brothers heard the story in 1809 from the family of Wilhelm's friend and future wife, Dortchen Wild, and partly from other sources. A handwritten note in

9184-411: The plants and animals and in the soil, connected by mycorrhizal networks . The main layers of all forest types are the forest floor , the understory, and the canopy. The emergent layer, above the canopy, exists in tropical rainforests. Each layer has a different set of plants and animals, depending upon the availability of sunlight, moisture, and food. In botany and countries like Germany and Poland,

9296-512: The population belongs to forest-dependent communities, which live in close proximity to forests and practice agroforestry as a principal part of their livelihood. People of Ghana who rely on timber and bushmeat harvested from forests and Indigenous peoples of the Amazon rainforest are also examples of forest-dependent people. Though forest-dependence by more common definitions is statistically associated with poverty and rural livelihoods, elements of forest-dependence exist in communities with

9408-615: The proportion of evergreen species increases and the forests are characterised as " sclerophyllous ". Thorn forest , a dense forest of low stature with a high frequency of thorny or spiny species, is found where drought is prolonged, and especially where grazing animals are plentiful. On very poor soils, and especially where fire or herbivory are recurrent phenomena, savannas develop. Sparse trees and savanna are forests with sparse tree- canopy cover. They occur principally in areas of transition from forested to non-forested landscapes. The two major zones in which these ecosystems occur are in

9520-428: The rate of forest loss has declined substantially. In the most recent five-year period (2015–2020), the annual rate of deforestation was estimated at 10 million hectares (25 million acres), down from 12 million hectares (30 million acres) annually in 2010–2015. The transition of a region from forest loss to net gain in forested land is referred to as the forest transition. This change occurs through

9632-465: The rate of annual increase slowed in 2010–2020. Smaller areas of woodland in cities may be managed as urban forestry , sometimes within public parks. These are often created for human benefits; Attention Restoration Theory argues that spending time in nature reduces stress and improves health, while forest schools and kindergartens help young people to develop social as well as scientific skills in forests. These typically need to be close to where

9744-460: The region and habitat. In contrast, secondary forest is forest regrowing following timber harvest and may contain species originally from other regions or habitats. Different global forest classification systems have been proposed, but none has gained universal acceptance. UNEP - WCMC 's forest category classification system is a simplification of other, more complex systems (e.g. UNESCO 's forest and woodland 'subformations'). This system divides

9856-474: The river is also a later addition. In some later versions, the mother died from unknown causes, left the family, or remained with the husband at the end of the story. In the 1810 pre-publication manuscript, the children were called "Little Brother" and "Little Sister", then named Hänsel and Gretel in the first edition (1812). Wilhelm Grimm also adulterated the text with Alsatian dialects, "re-appropriated" from August Stöber 's Alsatian version (1842) in order to give

9968-412: The rooftops of buildings. Indoors, pebbles can be used as bookends and paperweights . Large pebbles are also used to create " pet rocks " for children. On Mars , slabs of pebbly conglomerate rock have been found and have been interpreted by scientists as having formed in an ancient streambed. The gravels, which were discovered by NASA 's Mars rover Curiosity , range from the size of sand particles to

10080-501: The same woman. Zipes also argues that the importance of the tale in the European oral and literary tradition may be explained by the theme of child abandonment and abuse. Due to famines and lack of birth control , it was common in medieval Europe to abandon unwanted children in front of churches or in the forest. The death of the mother during childbirth sometimes led to tensions after remarriage, and Zipes proposes that it may have played

10192-452: The satisfying psychological effects of the children vanquishing the witch or realizing the death of their wicked stepmother. The fairy tale has spawned a multitude of adaptations for the stage, with one of the most notable being Engelbert Humperdinck 's opera Hänsel und Gretel . It is primarily based upon the Grimm's version, although it omits the deliberate abandonment of the children, and

10304-481: The sixth edition of Kinder- und Hausmärchen ( Grimm's Fairy Tales ) in 1850, the Brothers Grimm made several alterations to the story, which progressively gained in length, psychological motivation, and visual imagery, but also became more Christian in tone, shifting the blame for abandonment from a mother to a stepmother associated with the witch. In the original edition of the tale, the woodcutter's wife

10416-408: The smoothing continues in the sea. Beach pebbles and river pebbles (also known as river rock) are distinct in their geological formation and appearance. Manufactured Pebbles-These  are made from natural stones such as marble, granite, and sandstone. Manufactured Pebbles are designed to specified sizes and forms, making them flexible for many purposes. Beach pebbles form gradually over time as

10528-616: The southern hemisphere. They include such forest types as the mixed deciduous forests of the United States and their counterparts in China and Japan; the broadleaf evergreen rainforests of Japan, Chile , and Tasmania ; the sclerophyllous forests of Australia, central Chile, the Mediterranean , and California; and the southern beech Nothofagus forests of Chile and New Zealand. There are many different types of tropical moist forests , with lowland evergreen broad-leaf tropical rainforests : for example várzea and igapó forests and

10640-437: The tale a more "folksy" tone. Goldberg notes that although "there is no doubt that the Grimms' Hänsel und Gretel was pieced together, it was, however, pieced together from traditional elements," and its previous narrators themselves had been "piecing this little tale together with other traditional motifs for centuries." For instance, the duck helping the children cross the river may be the remnant of an old traditional motif in

10752-400: The tale celebrates the symbolic order of the patriarchal home, seen as a haven protected from the dangerous characters that threaten the lives of children outside, while it systematically denigrates the adult female characters, which are seemingly intertwined between each other. The death of the mother or stepmother soon after the children kill the witch suggests that they may be metaphorically

10864-690: The terra firme forests of the Amazon Basin ; the peat swamp forests ; dipterocarp forests of Southeast Asia ; and the high forests of the Congo Basin . Seasonal tropical forests , perhaps the best description for the colloquial term " jungle ", typically range from the rainforest zone 10 degrees north or south of the equator , to the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn . Forests located on mountains are also included in this category, divided largely into upper and lower montane formations, on

10976-420: The texture and colour. Outdoors, beach pebbles are often used for landscaping , construction and as decorative elements. Beach pebbles are often used to cover walkways and driveways, around pools, in and around plant containers, on patios and decks. Beach and river pebbles are also used to create water-smart gardens in areas where water is scarce. Small pebbles are also used to create living spaces and gardens on

11088-514: The trail that fails to lead the protagonists back home is also common to "Ninnillo and Nennella", "Finette Cendron" and "Hop-o'-My-Thumb", and the Brothers Grimm identified the latter as a parallel story. Finally, ATU 327 tales share a similar structure with ATU 313 (" Sweetheart Roland ", " Foundling-Bird ", "Okerlo") in that one or more protagonists (specifically children in ATU 327) come into

11200-476: The trees are being grown as Christmas trees and are below a certain height. The word forest derives from the Old French forest (also forès ), denoting "forest, vast expanse covered by trees"; forest was first introduced into English as the word denoting wild land set aside for hunting without necessarily having trees on the land. Possibly a borrowing, probably via Frankish or Old High German , of

11312-425: The trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to support an unbroken herbaceous layer that consists primarily of grasses. Savannas maintain an open canopy despite a high tree density. Forest plantations are generally intended for the production of timber and pulpwood . Commonly mono-specific, planted with even spacing between

11424-403: The trees, and intensively managed, these forests are generally important as habitat for native biodiversity . Some are managed in ways that enhance their biodiversity protection functions and can provide ecosystem services such as nutrient capital maintenance, watershed and soil structure protection and carbon storage. The annual net loss of forest area has decreased since 1990, but the world

11536-505: The type of vegetation that grows upon the land; an area can be legally designated "forest" even if no trees grow on it. Land-use definitions are based on the primary purpose the land is used for. Under a land-use definition, any area used primarily for harvesting timber, including areas that have been cleared by harvesting, disease, fire, or for the construction of roads and infrastructure, are still defined as forests, even if they contain no trees. Land-cover definitions define forests based upon

11648-543: The water on the fourth try. The story seems to contain the "child/wind" rhyming scheme of the German tale. In a French fairy tale, La Cabane au Toit de Fromage ("The Hut with the Roof made of Cheese"), the brother is the hero who deceives the witch and locks her up in the oven. In the first Puerto Rican variant of "The Orphaned Children", the brother pushes the witch into the oven. Other folk tales of ATU 327A type include

11760-428: The witch's eyes are too weak to notice the deception, she is fooled into thinking Hansel is still too thin for her to eat. After four weeks of this, the witch grows impatient and decides to eat Hansel anyway. She prepares the oven for Hansel, but decides she is hungry enough to eat Gretel, too. She coaxes Gretel to the open oven and asks her to lean over in front of it to see if the fire is hot enough. Gretel, sensing

11872-636: The witch's intent, pretends she does not understand what the witch means. Frustrated, the witch demonstrates, and Gretel instantly shoves her into the hot oven, slams and bolts the door shut, leaving the witch to burn to death. Gretel frees Hansel from the stable and the pair discover boxes full of pearls and precious stones . Putting the jewels into their pockets, the children set off for home. A white duck (or swan in some versions) ferries them across an expanse of water, and at home they find only their father; his wife had died from an unknown cause. The children's father had spent all his days missing them, and

11984-626: The word forest is commonly used, there is no universally recognised precise definition, with more than 800 definitions of forest used around the world. Although a forest is usually defined by the presence of trees, under many definitions an area completely lacking trees may still be considered a forest if it grew trees in the past, will grow trees in the future, or was legally designated as a forest regardless of vegetation type. There are three broad categories of definitions of forest in use: administrative, land use , and land cover . Administrative definitions are legal designations, and may not reflect

12096-461: The word is a Latinisation of the Frankish * forhist , denoting "forest, wooded country", and was assimilated to forestam silvam , pursuant to the common practice of Frankish scribes. The Old High German forst denoting "forest"; Middle Low German vorst denoting "forest"; Old English fyrhþ denoting "forest, woodland, game preserve, hunting ground" (English frith ); and Old Norse fýri , denoting " coniferous forest "; all of which derive from

12208-579: The world's forest area is found in patches larger than 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres). The remaining 20 percent is located in more than 34 million patches around the world – the vast majority less than 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) in size. Human society and forests can affect one another positively or negatively. Forests provide ecosystem services to humans and serve as tourist attractions. Forests can also affect people's health. Human activities, including unsustainable use of forest resources, can negatively affect forest ecosystems. Although

12320-416: The world's forests into 26 major types, which reflect climatic zones as well as the principal types of trees. These 26 major types can be reclassified into 6 broader categories: temperate needleleaf, temperate broadleaf and mixed, tropical moist, tropical dry, sparse trees and parkland, and forest plantations. Each category is described in a separate section below. Temperate needleleaf forests mostly occupy

12432-420: The world's land area in 2020. Forests are the largest terrestrial ecosystems of Earth by area, and are found around the globe. 45 percent of forest land is in the tropical latitudes . The next largest share of forests are found in subarctic climates , followed by temperate , and subtropical zones. Forests account for 75% of the gross primary production of the Earth's biosphere , and contain 80% of

12544-436: Was deciduous , dropping its fronds onto the forest floor, the shade, soil, and forest duff from the dropped fronds creating the early forest. The shed organic matter altered the freshwater environment, slowing its flow and providing food. This promoted freshwater fish. Forests account for 75% of the gross primary productivity of the Earth's biosphere , and contain 80% of the Earth's plant biomass. Biomass per unit area

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