Connecting knowledge to action
For one semester, Simon Musin, Antoine Van Lede, Samuel Konsdorff, Louis Uytterhaegen and Tom Schriewer shared a mission: To figure out how to create a new marteloscope close to their Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech faculty in Belgium.
But how does one set-up a 1-hectare forested, monitored, and mapped site, used to train forest managers, owners or students on the intersection of biodiversity conservation and timber production?
Leave a CommentBlogpost 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.
Leave a CommentIt was a dark and murky evening as I paved my way through Harcourt Street in Dublin. That’s when I suddenly found myself in a pub – not the kind where a lad or lass would sing a folk song – but rather a cosy, wooden, meeting room turned pub, where I’d stumble across familiar forest faces. Of course, I was in the right place – the social reception of the Integrate Network Annual Meeting! Starting off with a traditional Irish dance workshop, organised by the Integrate chairs, we started our gathering with some artistic engagement and reminisced about our past meeting in Austria. Such a social reception provided fertile ground to dive into an intensive 3-day programme on “Promoting Integrative Forest Management Practices in Managed Forests through Policy, Science & Practice” – reflecting on pioneers in young forest lands and the journey of “a forest culture emerging” in Ireland!
Leave a CommentBy Marianne Cornil
What stories do forests tell us when we truly listen? What imaginaries emerge from the rustling of branches, from leaf-covered forest floors, from moss at the foot of ancient trees? The European project „relating forests,” co-funded by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme, brought together four artists through a consortium of three organizations: TheatreFragile (Germany), NOBA – Norwegian Bio Arts Arena (Norway), and Cultures Éco-Actives (France). Together, storyteller Anne Dromzee, choreographer Rebekka Sartre and mask theater makers Luzie Ackers and Marianne Cornil explored these questions through an interdisciplinary artistic approach rooted in local ecosystems and cultural mythologies.
Leave a CommentBürger*innen erforschen den Waldwandel – Klimawirksamkeit, Biodiversität & Wasserhaushalt Das Forschungsinstitut für Bergbaufolgelandschaften (FIB) wurde mit dem 1. Platz des „Wissen der Vielen – Forschungspreis…
Leave a CommentThis question stood at the beginning of our project and became the starting point for our new guide “Forest Dialogues”, developed at the European Forest Institute (EFI) together with colleagues from the Forest Research Institute Baden-Württemberg (FVA).
The debate about the future of our forests is no longer purely technical. Climate change, nature conservation, timber production, and recreation – all play a part in forest management in Germany. Yet both citizens and forestry professionals often feel that their concerns are not fully understood. Foresters, as representatives of forest management, are also mediators between their profession and a society that increasingly demands participation and wants its views to be heard.
Leave a CommentHow can we better communicate forest management issues to the public? How can we reconnect forests and people in times of increased alienation? These two…
Leave a CommentWhat comes to your mind when you think of forest science? Maybe scientists monitoring biodiversity in the forest? Or researchers projecting future scenarios? But what about social science research around forests? In our Martelkom project, we are exploring societal perceptions of forest management and the interactions between foresters and the public. To do this, we decided to conduct a nationwide survey in Germany. This cannot be too complex – right? Or can it?
You might think that creating a survey is quick and easy: just draft some questions on the topics you want to study. Yet, in our studies, we have been told to never underestimate surveys and their complexity as a data collection tool. So, when we were tasked to develop a survey on societal perceptions of forest management, we were eager to dive in. Now that the survey is sent out, we’re still surprised by how much time it took – from crafting the right questions to identifying our target group, refining wording, and selecting the best response types. But let’s break it down step by step.
Leave a CommentŠmarna gora, the highest hill in the city of Ljubljana, is now more than an iconic landscape monument and a destination for hikers. With the opening of the first “marteloscope” in central Slovenia, its slopes have been transformed into an outdoor classroom for school pupils thanks to an initiative of the EU-funded research and innovation project MULTIPLIERS.
Leave a CommentWhat do you see when you look at a forest? The first, obvious answer could be “trees”, but the more nuanced reality is that forests have different meanings and values to different people. Trees provide important habitats to animals, such as cavities for bats to sleep in and branches for birds to build their nests on – an aspect often emphasised by ecologists and nature conservation managers. At the same time, trees offer valuable resources for producing furniture, paper, construction materials and other objects made of wood – a perspective often adopted by forest owners and foresters.
Where these perspectives clash, societal conflicts may arise – a topic that was examined in real life by students of the Liebfrauenschule in Bonn, Germany, involved in the EU-funded project MULTIPLIERS, coordinated by the University of Bonn. From 19-22 February, a group of 55 eighth graders visited a so-called “marteloscope” in Bonn’s Kottenforst nature reserve.
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