Press "Enter" to skip to content

Month: February 2026

SimInForest Project – building an innovative approach to link marteloscope exercises to simulation models

SimInForest Project – building an innovative approach to link marteloscope exercises to simulation models

Published February 18, 2026 by amschuck
SimInForest Project – building an innovative approach to link marteloscope exercises to simulation models
The marteloscope Sailershausen 2.

Written by Andreas Schuck, Senior Researcher at the European Forest Institute

For forest managers, it is quite challenging to integrate multiple forest management objectives and increase forest resilience considering our uncertain climatic and socioeconomic future. Marteloscopes, field plots in which every tree has been mapped and measured, are a great tool for silviculture training addressing these management challenges. With the help of a software that runs on mobile devices (“I+” software package) we can perform virtual silviculture interventions directly in Marteloscopes and retrieve the results immediately. This way, training participants can observe the impact of their interventions on various ecosystem services and discuss their results and applied silvicultural practices. This training approach has become very popular in the past ten years and a large network of marteloscope sites has emerged across Europe and beyond.

However, so far quantitative analyses of marteloscope exercise results are limited to comparisons of the forest stand before and immediately after a single silvicultural intervention. Currently, potential stand evolution after a virtual thinning and potential management prescriptions are mainly discussed based on the expertise of marteloscope trainers and the participants but lack quantitative support. Here, SimInForest “Combining field exercises and simulations on marteloscopes to develop integrative and sustainable silviculture approaches” comes into play.

Continue readingSimInForest Project – building an innovative approach to link marteloscope exercises to simulation models
Leave a Comment
Establishing a Network of Marteloscopes in Western Ukraine

Establishing a Network of Marteloscopes in Western Ukraine

Published February 10, 2026 by amschuck

Guest article by Vasyl Lavnyy and Peter Spathelf, originally written in German and published here.

One of the central tasks of forest management is deciding when, where, and what kinds of interventions are needed in a forest. But what factors should influence those decisions? 

Participants of forestry workshops often bring very different goals, motivations, and levels of experience to this question. Because of that, it is important to ask how silvicultural interventions affect various ecosystem services and the biological diversity of the forest. Marteloscopes are particularly useful for this purpose, because they allow users to make virtual interventions and immediately discuss the outcomes while standing in the forest. 

Marteloscopes aren’t just valuable for people with a solid forestry background – they are also excellent tools for students and other groups interested in forests. 

Over the last 20 years, Prof. Vasyl Lavnyy, Professor at the Ukrainian National Forestry University, has led many field trips through Ukrainian primary forests for foreign researchers and foresters from Germany, Switzerland, and France.

Continue readingEstablishing a Network of Marteloscopes in Western Ukraine
Leave a Comment
What does EFI do? A Visiting Student’s Perspective from Taiwan 

What does EFI do? A Visiting Student’s Perspective from Taiwan 

Published February 4, 2026 by Gabriela Rueda

Blogpost by Li Xin Yue

Quite often, there is a gap between forest policies developed on the national level, and the actual challenges practitioners face on the ground. This is an issue that we are also facing in Taiwan. To learn more about how other countries are dealing with the persistent disconnect between national forest policy and local realities, the Taiwanese Ministry of Education decided to fund me with an internship that allows me to travel across Europe and Asia to learn about different forest governance models.  And here I was, a master’s student at National Taiwan University, coming to Germany and visiting European Forest Institute.  

From EFI I wanted to learn how long-term scientific research can be effectively connected with policy processes and on-the-ground practice. And my exchange with the EFI researchers offered insights not only for my reporting, but also beyond the European context. 

Continue readingWhat does EFI do? A Visiting Student’s Perspective from Taiwan 
Leave a Comment
From pixels to pines: exploring Bulgaria’s Rhodopes ForestsExploring Bulgarian forests

From pixels to pines: exploring Bulgaria’s Rhodopes Forests

Published February 4, 2026 by Gesche Schifferdecker

#RestorationStory by Annabel Burg, Sietse van der Woude, and Niamh Kelly

It was the last day of June 2025 when our small group set out from Schiphol Airport. Traveling with us, three PhD students from Wageningen University and Research, were two colleagues: Gert-Jan Nabuurs, Professor of European Forest Resources at Wageningen University, and Thomas Groen, Associate Professor of Remote Sensing at the University of Twente. Our destination was Bulgaria – a country that, until then, most of us knew little about. We were curious, not only about its history and culture, but especially about its landscapes. Despite its modest size, Bulgaria is blessed with mountains, rivers, caves, and lakes. More than one-third of the country is covered by forests, making it one of Europe’s most densely forested and biodiverse nations.

Continue readingFrom pixels to pines: exploring Bulgaria’s Rhodopes Forests
Leave a Comment