The European Forest Institute (EFI), the European Forum on Urban Forestry (EFUF) and the Horizon 2020 CLEARING HOUSE project invite you to two days of integrated activities on…
Leave a CommentMonth: December 2020
Interview mit Hans von der Goltz
Hans von der Goltz ist Bundesvorsitzender der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Naturnahe Waldwirtschaft (ANW). Wir haben mit ihm über das neue ANW-Projekt “Dauerwald” gesprochen, über Chancen und Herausforderungen – und das Ziel, einen sowohl ökonomisch als auch ökologisch nachhaltigen Wald zu fördern.
Was ist eigentlich ein Dauerwald?
Ein Dauerwald ist ein Wald, in dem nicht nur verschiedene standortgerecht Baumarten, sondern auch Bäume unterschiedlichen Alters stehen. Er wird ohne Kahlschlag einzelbaumweise nach dem Prinzip der größtmöglichen Stetigkeit bewirtschaftet – Stetigkeit von Vorrat, Struktur, Zuwachs und ökologischen Grundlagen.
Warum brauchen wir Dauerwald?
Im Dauerwald führt relativ einheitliche Ausstattung aller „Waldetagen“ mit jungen, mittelalten und alten Bäumen zu Windruhe und zu einer deutlich höheren Luft- und Bodenfeuchte. Hierdurch werden Maximaltemperaturen gesenkt. Einzelne, besonders trocken- oder hitzeempfindliche Baumarten leiden natürlich auch, aber andere überdauern. Im Gegensatz zu wenig strukturierten Reinbeständen verschwindet bei den aktuellen Herausforderungen des Klimawandels nicht der ganze Wald, sondern eben nur einzelne Bäume. Der Wald bleibt erhalten – und das muss aktuell unser wichtigstes Ziel sein.
Leave a CommentAs the days grow shorter and colder, we are reminded that the final days of 2020 are just on the horizon, leaving us to reflect on the past year and make our hopes and aspirations for the following. But because we are people with a shared passion, we also make reflections and aspirations for our forests. With recent key EU policy frameworks such as the new Green Deal, Biodiversity Strategy to 2030 and the upcoming Forest Strategy, some questions might be on our minds. What are the implications of these new policies for the provision of forest ecosystem services (FES)? And what do representatives from policy, research, nature conservation as well as forest owners and managers consider to be essential in the Forest Strategy? On 7th December, the SINCERE Talks series jointly with the European Integrate Network produced the webinar “Towards an EU policy framework for forest ecosystem services – reflecting on 2020, exploring 2021” which provided a unique and exciting space to discuss these topics.
Leave a CommentUsing marteloscope sites for educating on new approaches
A large number of private forests in Ireland are less than 30 years of age and many are approaching thinning stage. There is now greater need for owners to understand and control the thinning process in order to realise the full value of their forests as part of a sustainable management approach. This is imperative if a sustained level of timber mobilisation is to be achieved from private forests. There is also a growing demand, coming from forest owners, for diversification of management systems to complement the current clear fell-replant system. Recent developments in European and national forestry policy are directed at promoting integrated management as a means of enhancing forest resilience in the face of climate disruption, sustaining forest production and delivering diverse ecosystem services. These new systems, known as Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF), enable commercial timber harvesting while retaining a forest cover in the long term.
Leave a CommentArticle by Marco Mina
Some time ago we discussed how viewing and analyzing forest landscapes as functional complex networks could be a promising approach to increase ecological resilience to global uncertainty. Now, two new studies show how this could be applied in differently structured landscapes.
Our blue marble planet is one single interconnected organism. From plants to pollinators, preys to predators, climate to primary production, Earth’s natural ecosystems have evolved for million years to build complex and balanced interactions. Forest landscapes are also complex ecological networks, which can be depicted in many ways depending on the scale of observation. For example, if we take a look at a satellite image of a rural area (e.g., an administrative region in Germany or in southern Canada), we will immediately recognize patches of forests fragmented by agricultural crops, roads, powerlines or human settlements. In other areas, forest might cover a larger proportion of the land, resulting in a more continuous matrix. In both cases, a series of interconnected relation exists among tree species, stands, and forest patches allowing the maintenance of vital functions of such ecological system.
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