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Tag: Pro Silva Europe

Once upon a time… there was a marteloscope.

Stories of integrated forest management in Luxembourg

During times when polarisation seems to be on the rise on many levels, a growing number of forest managers is choosing to do the opposite and to bridge differences instead. The Integrate Network has since 2016 been exchanging information on forest management ideas that combine wood production with nature conservation, a feat which may sound contradictory to some but in many cases offers plenty of advantages compared to a segregated approach. The members, governmental organizations from 18 different European countries, reflect a diverse view on forestry, characterised by a variety of factors that differ from one region to another. The common theme is the belief that production and protection do not have to exclude each other, quite the opposite.

The open exchange of experiences in the Integrate Network is increasingly attracting interest, not only from policy makers but also from practitioners. The network of marteloscopes serves to demonstrate and visualise potential trade-offs between economy and ecology on a stand level, allowing on-field training for everyone with a professional or non-professional interest in forest management.

It is always exciting when new marteloscope sites are added to the steadily expanding list, but even more so when a new country decides to join the network. This was the case for the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in 2019. ProSilva and the Nature and Forest Administration of Luxembourg contacted EFI to set up its first marteloscopes. As a Belgian I had been in Luxembourg several times before but still the beauty and the diversity of the landscapes of this small country never seize to amaze me.

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Ein zukunftsfähiges Waldkonzept entwickeln – das Projekt “Dauerwald”

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.

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Experiences of uneven-aged forest management in the Czech Republic

by Pavel Bednář, Andreas Schuck and Alexander Held

Risks to our forests are increasing due to climate change and its consequences. Recently, we have seen a raising number of wind storms, wildfire and bark beetle outbreaks. Thus there is a need to find feasible options to adapt forest management to such developments. Especially homogeneous coniferous forest stands both in tree species composition and age have shown to become vulnerable.

On the 25th and 26th of October 2018 Pro Silva Bohemica invited forest and nature conservation managers, researchers, forest owners and policy representatives from the Czech Republic and other European countries including Austria, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland to share their experiences on transforming pure even-aged Norway spruce stands into uneven-aged mixed forests. Around 110 participants attended the conference in Fryšava pod Žákovou horou about 2 hours’ south-east of Prague. The importance of both the topic and the workshop was underlined by the official patronage of Miroslav Toman, the Czech Minister of Agriculture.

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Close-To-Nature Forestry across Europe

A short report on the annual Pro Silva Europa meeting in Weimar, Germany

Pro Silva is a European federation of professional foresters across 24 European countries (and more recently in New England, USA) who advocate and promote Pro Silva Close to Nature Forest Management Principles as an alternative to age-class forestry to create and maintain resilient forest ecosystems. Increasing forest resilience was also the motivation to create Pro Silva 29 years ago.
This year, the annual meeting was planned and prepared by ANW Deutschland and Pro Silva Europa. It was operationally hosted by ANW Thuringia and the state forest administration of Thuringia in and around the city of Weimar on 20-23 June 2018. The Pro Silva Program addressed topics such as forest conversion from age-class to continuous-cover forestry, re-introduction of silver fir (and other climate-change-relevant tree species) and the ungulate-silviculture challenge of converting European forests to more biodiverse, stable and resilient forests.

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