Old-growth forests are archetypal verdant, lush forests that hold an almost mythical place in our imaginations. As their name implies, old-growth forests are dominated by ancient trees and have been shaped by natural processes over the course of many years. Also known as primary or virgin forests, these forest ecosystems consist of native species and lack signs of damaging human activities. …Despite general agreement that old-growth forests are important, there is not consensus on what exactly an old-growth forest is. FAO defines an old-growth forest as “a naturally regenerated forest of native species, where there are no clearly visible indications of human activities and the ecological processes are not significantly disturbed”. Other groups have amended this definition to include traditional activities of indigenous and local communities as part of old-growth forests. …Despite this improvement, forests are still being cleared at unsustainable rates and lost to direct and indirect human actions.