2011 has been declared the “International Year of Forests” by the United Nations. This is why the theme selected for this year’s Europa stamps series will focus on the “forest” topic.
Forests are vital to the survival of mankind and today require our attention more than ever before. They support life on Earth by protecting soil and water, help stabilise our climate and supply us with energy and natural, durable materials.
Their biodiversity is enormous and their role as the planet’s lungs is undeniable. However, their integrity is increasingly threatened by fire, parasites and diseases caused by climate change, uncontrolled deforestation and air pollution.
Forests cover 34% of Luxembourg’s surface, making the Grand Duchy one of Western Europe’s most wooded territories. These forests are dominated by leafy trees, like the beech and the oak and preserved, to a large degree, in the same state as yesteryear. Luxembourg’s beech groves notably play a vital role as they are becoming rarer in Europe and around the world.
In part overexploited by centuries of pasture creation and the excessive production of charcoal for industry, Luxembourg forests are now managed following the principles of lasting forest management. These principles aim at maintaining a forest’s ecological, economic and social functions. With the goal of preserving the many services that forests provide, it is crucial to protect our forests against threats such as climate change, atmospheric pollution and urban sprawl.
Alan Johnston Ph.D., the artist who created the stamps, was born in Zurich in 1959 and grew up in Oxford. He studied as an illustrator of flora and fauna at Dyfed College of Art.
He has also taken courses in taxidermy, worked temporarily as a caretaker in nature preserves in England and was employed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).
Alan Johnston has travelled a great deal and has given courses in Great Britain and Luxembourg. For the past four years he has worked at the National Museum of Natural History in Luxembourg.
For more than 20 years now, Alan Johnston has lived and worked as an independent artist. While working outdoors, the artist is inspired and affected by the climactic, ecological and geological characteristics of the environment, conferring a documentary-like authenticity on his works.
Between 1990 and 2000 he wrote and illustrated five books.
He is currently busy writing and illustrating his sixth work “The Marquenterre, From One Swallow to Another”.
