Forests cover 11 per cent of the territory in Azerbaijan and 10 per cent in Armenia, mainly due to unfavourable natural and soil conditions and scarce rainfall. Primary forest of native species, with its extension of 500,000 ha largely consisting of protected forest, has remained virtually unchanged. The country’s nine varied climatic zones, ranging from wet subtropical to everlasting snow and glacier zones, in combination with variation in soils and reliefs, favoured the development of diverse vegetation formations. Beech (Fagus orientalis) is the species with the highest growing stock, estimated to 229.3 million m3.