Threats
The species is threatened by loss and degradation of Quercus forest habitats due to logging, deforestation and diseases. In practice, the silvicultural system has clear-cutting in oak forest; as a result bare lands and even-aged forests are created while old growth forests are in decline (Trajkov et al. 2016), posing a major threat to maintenance of a stable population. In North Macedonia, ca. 1% of forests are logged annually (Kolevska et al. 2017, State Statistics Office 2018), with additional 30% illegal logging to legal wood extraction. Albeit the species is found in national parks, forests in NPs are also managed, only with restriction in regard to the logging system (Trajkov et al. 2016). According to the National Action Plan for Fight against Desertification in the Republic of Macedonia (2017), in the 2000–2012 period, a decrease of 35,000 ha (4%) of forest area had occurred based on analysis of CORINE land cover. The severely reduced appropriate quality of the habitat, creates unfavourable conditions for upholding the population.
Furthermore, it is threatened by planting of nonnative species instead of oak species in the lower oak belt (Kolevska et al. 2017).
Diseases of the ectomycorrhizal partner Quercus spp. and Castanea sativa, with varying degrees of intensity, have been reported (DPRS 2019). Diseases of oak stands are primarily caused by Euproctis chrysorrhoe L., Lymantria dispar L. and species of the family Tortricidae while diseases of sweet chestnut trees by Cryphonectria parasitica (Murrill) Barr (DPRS 2019).
