The Perućica Forest Reserve is 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) long, 1–3 kilometres (0.62–1.86 mi) wide, and has an area of 1,400 hectares (3,500 acres). It is a UNESCO recognized site. The forest has many trees that are 300 years old, and the primeval forest's vintage is stated to be 20,000 years. In some stretches the forest growth is almost impenetrable, and the forest can only be explored in the company of rangers.
The Peručica is the last intact European primeval forest. The national park of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is full of incredible dramatic and fairy-tale scenery, has an invaluable wealth of water and untouched forests. This biodiverse area is characterized by the fact that some of the last examples of flora and fauna on European soil live here. At the same time, the number of endemic plant and animal species is also numerous. Forest cutting and hunting are strictly prohibited, as well as any intervention in the natural processes of growth, development and death, except in the case of significant forest fires that threaten to endanger the entire ecosystem, which is surprisingly small in space, and which are often suspected of being planted or caused by human carelessness.
In the Peručica are various types of plant vegetation which still not yet been explore. There are a large number of trees around 300 years old. Trees over 50 meters high can be found in the Peručica rainforest, and currently the highest measured is 57.4 meters high. It is covered with various trees such as beech and spruce, some of which are 50 meters long. In the heart of the Peručica is a waterfall Skakavac high 80 meters.
According to scientists at Yale University, Peručica offers a unique study on the role of rainforest in the global carbon cycle, since it is one of the last rainforest in urban Europe, making it the perfect natural laboratory.
Due to its beauty and richness, in 1952 the rainforest was declared a strictly protected part of nature which is used exclusively for scientific and educational purposes, while in 1954 it was placed under state protection as a nature reserve.
t is believed that the primeval forest is about 20,000 years old (it existed before The Ice Age). The scientific and educational values of ancient Perućica have been known since 1952 and it has been on the UNESCO tentative list since 2017. Strict Nature Reserve which has been protected for decades is undoubtedly the most precious jewel, never fully explored, the largest natural treasure of this kind in Europe, a real challenge for all botanists but at the same time inaccessible to the common man. One of the main missions of National Park ‘Sutjeska’ is to protect and preserve Perućica in its original state. Did you know that nine species of a woodpecker (family Picidae) live in the Park, mainly in strict nature reserve Perućica, which represents 90% of family Picidae in Europe? A large number of these birds shows how much this forest area and the ecological diversity of the park suit them. Woodpeckers depend on the old, diseased and dead trees as their food source and they are also very important in building their nests.In Perućica, as well as in the rest of the Park, you can see richness and diversity of flora and a number of endemic and rare species. The fact that more than 170 species of trees and shrubs and over 1000 species of herbaceous plants have been registered there proves that Perućica is rich in flora. Some parts of the primeval forest are almost inaccessible. You will pass by trees which are over 50 meters tall and with the largest wood volume up to more than 1000 cubic meters per hectare. In this forest there is the tallest measured spruce (63 meters tall). It has rich diversity of fauna, with a large number of invertebrates, especially butterflies, but also amphibians, reptiles and fish, 36 species and 18 families of mammals, and many species of birds. Rare and endangered game species are: wild cat, lynx, and blind mole rat. Important mammals are bears, roe deer, wild boars, wolves, foxes, and badgers.
How was primeval forest Perućica found? Back in 1938, forest taxators, while working on a study on mountain Maglić, found beautiful stands of beech, fir and spruce in the basin of the river Perućica, in the valley between Maglić, Volujak and Sniježnica. Their wood volume exceeded 1,000 cubic meters per hectare, and the height of some trees exceeded 50 meters. This was the reason for the Government of SR of BiH to separate Perućica with an area of 1234 ha from ‘the regular forest management and allocate it as the forest area needed for scientific research and education’ in 1952. In 1954 the area, enlarged by another 200 ha, was placed under the state protection as a nature reserve.