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Month: March 2019

Policy recommendations for employing urban forests as enabling learning environments

Policy recommendations for employing urban forests as enabling learning environments

Published March 26, 2019 by Rik De Vreese

there is a place
where children who have never walked, find freedom
where children who have never talked, find words
and more often than not, where every child finds a smile

-Source unknown-

Playing and learning in the forest stimulates the imagination, creativity and entrepreneurship. Nature is a great place to gain experience for the development of social and motor skills.

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Happy International Day of Forests!

Happy International Day of Forests!

Published March 21, 2019 by Maria Schlossmacher

Written by José Bolaños and Maria Schlossmacher

This year the International Day of Forests (IDF) will address the exciting theme “Forests and Education”. It is an occasion to raise awareness, to inform and to educate a broad public, different stakeholders and forest-managers about forest-related topics.

Forests cover one third of land on Earth, and they perform crucial and vital functions around the world. Trees improve our lives both at a grand scale and at the local level. Despite those benefits, deforestation and consequences of climate change are among other great challenges for forests.

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National Forest Inventories as a multipurpose tool for urban forests

National Forest Inventories as a multipurpose tool for urban forests

Published March 19, 2019 by Itziar Aguinaga Gil

Written by Itziar Aguinaga Gil

Urban environmental challenges require on-site environmental solutions. As such, green infrastructure is widely proposed as a feasible measure towards the resilience and sustainable development of urban areas.

Urban forests represent the back-bone of urban green infrastructure by connecting the rural and city interface, and they provide both environmental and social benefits given that an adequate implementation and management is in place. However, all efforts may fail if there are not consistent and universal tools to quantify and characterize the necessary factors involved in the practice, policy and decision-making process. That is why we should consider the potentials of integrating urban forests within the National Forest Inventory.

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No storm clouds without silver linings

Published March 18, 2019 by Maria Schlossmacher

Written by Alexander Held, Andrea Ortiz, Maria Schloßmacher

Two major storms, Eberhard and Franz, hit Germany and so its most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, last week. Experts are still assessing the full extent of the damage, but what is clear: this huge damage will have long-term impacts on forests. It also demonstrates once again the extent of enormous damages that are caused by storms and the related secondary damages like bark beetle infestation. 

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Resilience: the ball-and-cup metaphor

Published March 15, 2019 by Jose Bolaños


Voices of Resilience introduces Rupert Seidl, Professor of forest ecosystem management and Deputy Head of the Institute of Silviculture at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna, Austria. His research focuses on understanding how climate and disturbances affect forest ecosystem dynamics, and on applying this knowledge towards increasing the robustness of forest management in a changing world.

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Wald-Wild Urteil aus Bayern / Silviculture and deer – an interesting verdict from Bavaria

Wald-Wild Urteil aus Bayern / Silviculture and deer – an interesting verdict from Bavaria

Published March 12, 2019 by Alexander Held

For English summary please scroll down.
Das höchste Bayerische Verwaltungsgericht hat im November 2018 ein höchstinteressantes Urteil gesprochen. Unter anderem sind drei sehr bedeutsame Positionen herausgearbeitet worden:

  1. Die Jagd hat eine dienende Funktion.
  2. Es gilt der Grundsatz “Wald vor Wild” auch für Eigenjagdbesitzer.
  3. Eine verlässliche Grundlage zur Aufstellung des Abschussplanes ist das “Forstliche Gutachten”.
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„Eingeführte Baumarten in europäischen Wäldern: Chancen und Herausforderungen“

„Eingeführte Baumarten in europäischen Wäldern: Chancen und Herausforderungen“

Published March 7, 2019 by Frank Krumm

Deutsche Übersetzung jetzt verfügbar!
Die Einführung von Baumarten ist ein bedeutendes und zugleich kontroverses Thema. In allen Ländern Europas sind eingeführte Arten einerseits als Chance für die Steigerung der Holzproduktion gesehen und können Alternativen für eine sich unter dem Einfluss des Klimawandels verändernde Artenzusammensetzung in Wäldern darstellen. Andererseits können eingeführte Arten auch die Ursache für den Verlust an Artenvielfalt sein, natürliche Ökosysteme stören und bei ungewünschter Verbreitung hohe Kosten verursachen.

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Fire management in Viking style – looking for solutions together

Fire management in Viking style – looking for solutions together

Published March 5, 2019 by Laura Nikinmaa

The North is getting hot! Last year with its uncommonly warm and dry spring and summer caused lot of problems to the forest and agricultural sector in the Nordic countries. In addition, Sweden suffered from extensive wildfires. Due to climate change, summers like 2018 might become the new normal. To address this, the Nordic Council of Ministers launched a project group  that is a collaboration between Nordic Agri Research (NKJ) and Nordic Forest Research (SNS). SNS held a workshop “Nordic forestry in times of extreme weather” in Copenhagen, Denmark, on the 1st of March to discuss amongst the participants from the ministries and fire service, how Nordic collaboration could be strengthened to face the new challenges. Laura Nikinmaa from the European Forest Institute’s Resilience Programme was invited to be a guest speaker together with Marc Castellnou from the Pau Costa Foundation and Martin Vendelbo from the Danish Emergency Management Agency.

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