Integrated forest management (IFM) can help reconcile critical trade-offs between goals in forest management, such as nature conservation and biomass production. The challenge of IFM is dealing with these trade-offs at the level of practical forest management, such as striving for compromises between biomass extraction and habitat retention. With this background in mind, the paper “Can nature conservation and wood production be reconciled in managed forests? A review of driving factors for integrated forest management in Europe”, which is published in the Journal of Environmental Management, reviews some of the driving factors that influence the integration of nature conservation into forest management.
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On 26-28 February 2020, about 200 scientists – forest ecologists, economists, policy analysts and conservationists – as well as interested stakeholders, students and practitioners from Europe and beyond gathered together at the Ceasar Research Centre in Bonn, Germany, to discuss scientific evidence relating to the current state of ‘integrated’ forest management approaches across the globe. Here’s my attempt of a short reportage of three very dense – but extremely interesting – days in the European Forest City 2020.
Whether you are a regular reader of the Resilience blog or you ended up here by clicking a link in social media, one thing is clear: you are interested in forests. And you are interested to know how forests can be managed in an optimal way, so they provide not only wood but many ecosystem services (for example clean water, recreation, habitat, protection) to our busy society. Well, unfortunately there is not a universal recipe for this. Ecological conditions of forests as well as their governance, policies, and human societies surrounding them are very different across the globe. On top of that, our world is changing with a pace that is faster than the ability of forests to adapt to novel conditions. This demands us to bring together ideas for ‘integrated’ forest management solutions to face major global challenges. This was the reason why the European Forest Institute (EFI) in collaboration with several other research institutions and projects organised the conference “Governing and managing forests for multiple ecosystem services across the globe”.
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Written by Lison Ambroise & Sara Helsen
As part of the IFSA (International Forestry Students’ Organisation) delegation, we had the opportunity to take part in the conference “Governing and managing forests for multiple ecosystem services across the globe” in Bonn. The event did not only gather experts from many different countries, but also transdisciplinarity was the watchword: participants ranged from the field of forest policy to forest management research, and from practitioner to policymaker.
During the introductory panel, the projects responsible for the organization of the conference were presented. Both the INFORMAR (Integrated Forest Management Learning Architecture) and the POLYFORES (Decision-making support for Forest Ecosystem Services in Europe) project were introduced by Georg Winkel (Head of EFI Bonn), while the Research Training Group ConFoBi (Conservation of Forest Biodiversity in Multiple-Use Landscapes of Central Europe) was presented by Jürgen Bauhus (Freiburg University). After a welcome note by Eva Müller, Head of the Forestry Department of the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the first plenary started with a global overview of today’s forest management and practices, a “Tour de la Planète”. From Robert Nasi (Center for International Forest Research, Natalia Lukina (Russian Academy of Sciences), Christian Messier (Université du Québec à Montréal), Ulrich Schraml (Forest Research Institute of Baden-Württemberg), and Eduardo Rojas Briales (Polytechnic University of Valencia) we learned about European forests, tropical forests, Boreal forests – including differences between Russia and Sweden –, Australian and northern American ones, as well as Mediterranean forests. It was obvious that, depending on the localization of the forests and the societal context, the perception of forest ecosystem services differs a lot, as well as forest management. According to Robert Nasi, in some tropical forests, the informal sector accounts for ten times more logging than the formal one and the deforestation rate is still increasing, so what we call “sustainable management” does not seem to be the solution. In Russia, Australia, Canada, and the US, forest management is predominantly segregated, while many European countries apply an integrative approach. Segregation versus integration, that was a returning question. We were impressed by the creativity of Ulrich Schraml (Forest Research Institute of Baden-Württemberg) who illustrated a history of segregation and reintegration using bowling pins in different colors.
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Join us in Bonn, the European Forest City 2020, for a multi-disciplinary discussion on integrated forest management and ecosystem services By Silvia Abruscato and Christiane…
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Von Klaus Striepen
Das Netzwerk der Marteloskope in Europa wächst immer weiter und damit auch die Ideen für deren Einsatzmöglichkeiten. Im Rahmen des europäischen LIFE+ Naturschutzprojektes „Villewälder“ wurde erstmals eine Übung für Bonner Bürgerinnen und Bürger durchgeführt. Diese wurde in Zusammenarbeit mit der Volkshochschule Bonn (Adult Education Center) organisiert. Die Veranstaltung fand bei wunderbarem Frühlingswetter am ersten Aprilwochenende 2019 im Marteloskop Jägerhäuschen statt, einem Eichenmischwald im Waldgebiet Kottenforst nahe der Großstadt Bonn. Die Betreuung der Teilnehmer erfolgte durch die Mitarbeiter des LIFE+ Projektes, Klaus Striepen vom Regionalforstamt Rhein-Sieg-Erft und Peter Tröltzsch von der Biologischen Station Bonn/ Rhein-Erft.
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Who does’t know the adventures of Asterix and Obelix? These two friends and their fellow villagers are constantly trying to defend their way of life against the never-ending attempts from outsiders to destroy it. Stories like this have occurred throughout history all across the planet, but luckily most of them are peaceful. This is a story about resilience; not only of forests, but mainly of people.
By Emmanuel Rouyer and Laurent Larrieu
The network of I+ marteloscopes is in constant expansion. While the epicenter is still located in Central Europe, more and more demonstration sites are being installed in notably the Southeast and the Southwest of our continent. Exemplary for the latter category is the relatively new Hèches marteloscope, located at the foot of the central Pyrenees in southern France.
Le réseau des marteloscopes I+ est en constante expansion. Alors que l’épicentre est toujours situé en Europe centrale, de plus en plus de sites de démonstration sont installés notamment dans le sud-est et le sud-ouest de notre continent. Le marteloscope d’Hèches, relativement récent, situé au pied des Pyrénées centrales, dans le sud de la France, est exemplaire pour cette dernière catégorie. (pour la version française : vers le bas)
Forstfachleute aus acht Bundesländern und aus der Schweiz tauschten sich zu den Perspektiven von IT-gestützten Waldbau-Schulungen aus.
Vom 10.-11.7.2018 trafen sich in Bonn forstliche Fachleute aus zahlreichen Bundesländern, aus der Schweiz und von Hochschulen sowie vom Europäischen Forstinstitut (EFI), um sich zum Stand und zu Perspektiven von Waldbau-Schulungen auszutauschen. Hierbei ging es vor allem um die künftige Rolle moderner Informationstechnologien und um die didaktische Weiterentwicklung von Waldbau-Schulungen. Präsentiert und diskutiert wurden Erfahrungen aus dem von EFI initiierten Integrate+-Projekt (Integration von Waldnaturschutz in die Waldbewirtschaftung und Nutzung besonderer Demonstrationsflächen) und aus den Forstverwaltungen verschiedener Bundesländer. Das Expertentreffen begann mit dem Austausch von Erfahrungen bezüglich der Nutzung von Demonstrationsflächen für die integrative Waldbewirtschaftung, sogenannte Marteloskopflächen, für unterschiedliche Trainingszwecke. Darüber hinaus wurden Beispiele aus der Praxis des Waldbau-Trainings vorgestellt und Entwicklungsperspektiven für die Waldbau-Schulung diskutiert. In Bonn sind die ersten beiden NRW-Marteloskope nach dem Integrate+-Ansatz eingerichtet. Eine dieser Flächen im Kottenforst wurde unter Führung von Uwe Schölmerich und Klaus Striepen von Wald und Holz NRW am zweiten Tag besucht, um den Erfahrungsaustausch im Wald fortzusetzen. Die Exkursion war auch verbunden mit einer virtuellen, von einer am EFI entwickelten Trainingssoftware unterstützten Durchforstungsübung.
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“How are different European countries dealing with Integrated Forest Management and which role do questions like tree composition, forest ownership, and expectations with regards to timber production play? What are the challenges regarding effective funding schemes for Integrated Forest Management, and why do we need payments for ecosystem services? How can we better communicate the advantages of Integrated Forest Management? Which tools can be used to further educate foresters, policy makers, and other relevant stakeholders? Following the invitation of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic, we discussed these and more issues in the framework of the second meeting of the European Network INTEGRATE from 19-21 March 2018.
Together with more than 40 representatives of ministries, state forests and private forest owners, researchers and practitioners from 10 European countries, we spent three inspiring days in the Czech Republic. Most of the participants came from Poland, Slovakia, Germany, Croatia, Austria and – of course – the Czech Republic, and Italy was represented by a new network member from the Italian Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies. Joining INTEGRATE for the first time, policy makers from Finland, Latvia and Belgium shared their countries’ approaches to forest management and the integration of nature protection in forest policy.
Wrapping up the results of the InForMAr kick-off meeting
By Johanna Strieck & Laura Nikinmaa
European Forest Institute’s (EFI) Bonn office hosted a two-day’s workshop to kick off the project Integrated Forest Management Learning Architecture (InForMAr). The project aims at conveying existing knowledge related to the implementation of integrated forest management, in order to spread cases of success as well as to address and to fill potential knowledge gaps. To get a background as inclusive as possible, around 30 European policy stakeholders, scientists and practitioners joined the workshop to discuss (and co-design) the research approach of the InForMAr project, and to connect to the project’s networking and policy/practice support activities.
Head of EFI’s resilience program Dr. Georg Winkel introduced the project and drew attention to its integrative character from the beginning: “The main aspect is to create learning sites for policy, science and practice to connect, to enable the identification of driving forces, so to understand and to demonstrate successful cases for adaptation in all contexts.” Specific training sites, called Marteloscopes, already enjoy great popularity. According to Andreas Schuck, Senior Researcher within InForMAr, stakeholders from all over Europe already express high interest – from practitioners over policy stakeholders to universities.