The natural vegetation on the Kras (Karst) Plateau is forest. Anthropogenic pressure on this region has been present since the prehistoric times. Because of deforestation linked to excessive grazing and other land uses, and hence accelerated water and wind erosion, the region has over the last millennium gradually turned into bare karst landscape. In the 18th and 19th century, the Kras (Karst) Plateau was a »rocky desert«. In the 19th century, systematic reforestation began, first unsuccessfully with oak and afterwards successfully with black pine. This process took place also in the first half of the 20th century. In the second half of the 20th century, reforestation was replaced by the process of spontaneous afforestation as a result of natural overgrowing of abandoned agricultural land.Naravno rastje na Krasu je gozd. Človek v to pokrajino posega že vse od prazgodovine. Zaradi izsekavanja gozda, povezanega s prekomerno pašo in drugo rabo, ter posledično zaradi pospešene vodne in vetrne erozije, jo je v zadnjem tisočletju postopno spremenil v golo kraško površje. V 18. in 19. stoletju je bil Kras »kamnita puščava«. V 19. stoletju so se začela načrtna pogozdovanja, najprej neuspešno s hrastom in nato uspešno s črnim borom. Ta proces je potekal še v prvi polovici 20. stoletja. V drugi polovici 20. stoletja je pogozdovanje zamenjal proces stihijskega ogozdovanja kot posledica naravnega zaraščanja ob opustitvi kmetijskih zemljišč, ki smo mu priča še danes
