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36° und es wird noch heißer: Innen Interforst, Draußen Waldbrand

36° und es wird noch heißer: Innen Interforst, Draußen Waldbrand

Published August 9, 2022 by Maria Schlossmacher

WKR als Aussteller beim BMEL Stand auf der Interforst in München

Zwischen dem 17-20 August stand bei der Messe München alles im Zeichen von Wald. Die Interforst ist die Leitmesse für Forstwirtschaft und Forsttechnik und vereinigt über 300 Aussteller und 31000 Besucher aus knapp 60 Ländern.

Auf Einladung des Bundesministeriums für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft (BMEL) wurden 3 Projekte ausgewählt, die am Stand des Ministeriums auf der Interforst ihr Projekt vorstellen konnten. Das vom Waldklimafonds geförderte und am EFI Bonn ansässige Waldbrand-Klima-Resilienz Projekt war eines dieser Projekte. Die Einladung haben wir dankend angenommen und uns gefreut das Thema Waldbrand(management) unter die Leute zu bringen- und es ist brandaktuell. Während der Messetage überschlugen sich die Nachrichten von Waldbränden in Deutschland und ganz Europa. Parallel zu den Gesprächen vor Ort mit Besuchern, stieg auch das mediale Interesse für die Thematik und so haben die WKR Experten Alexander Held und Lindon Pronto an den Tagen verschiedensten Medien zahlreiche Interviews und Statements gegeben. Diese sind wichtiger Teil des WKR Projektziels, für das Thema Waldbrand zu sensibilisieren und auch das Konzept vom ganzheitlichen Waldbrandmanagement stärker in den Fokus der Öffentlichkeit zu bringen.

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Improving forest resilience and enhancing biodiversity in European Forests: findings, experiences, and prospects

Improving forest resilience and enhancing biodiversity in European Forests: findings, experiences, and prospects

Published July 19, 2022 by Santiago Alarcón

For two days, on June 28-29, over 50 marteloscope managers, researchers, and further forestry experts from more than 12 European countries participated in a workshop…

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9 take-home messages from the SUPERB Governance Innovation Lab

9 take-home messages from the SUPERB Governance Innovation Lab

Published July 13, 2022 by Priscila Jordão

Forest governance is a complex topic, and we are living in complex times. A quick analysis of the EU and global policy environment in 2022 results in an intricate puzzle of overlapping but also contradicting sectoral policies in the fields of agriculture, energy, climate and environment that are relevant to forests. National and municipal forest strategies and plans add another layer of intricacy to the equation. And that’s not to mention the many ecosystem service demands by society that often compete at the local level! 

To unravel the complexity of the topic and work out different perceptions of governance challenges in forest restoration, researchers and practitioners gathered at the SUPERB Governance Innovation Lab, hosted by project partner Prospex Institute in Opatija, Croatia, between 27-29 June. There, participants exchanged innovative local and regional approaches to forest governance, discussed how these could apply to SUPERB’s large-scale demos, and created first synergies with partners outside the project consortium. 

For those who missed the event, we from EFI have compiled a list of 9 take-home messages from the Governance Lab: 

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How we can better understand our forest ecosystems with laser scanning

How we can better understand our forest ecosystems with laser scanning

Published July 6, 2022 by Gesche Schifferdecker

by Luiza Tyminska and Jean-Matthieu Monnet

If you want to investigate the influence of management on forest resilience after disturbances, you can of course put your walking shoes on and do field measurements. However, how can you evaluate forest areas of several hundreds of square kilometers? In forest science, we consider Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) a strong solution for mapping forest characteristics – including forests’ internal structure – at high resolution over wide areas. ALS is a remote sensing technology based on the emission of laser pulses. The laser light can penetrate the tree canopy and reflect on objects located inside the forest, or even by the ground. The Earth’s surface is then modelled as point clouds in three dimensions with geometric information on the height of the vegetation, but also on its internal structure. In the project Innovative forest management strategies for a resilient bioeconomy under climate change and disturbances (I-MAESTRO), we used ALS for two purposes: describing the forests to get an initial state for simulations, and analysing forest dynamics with repeated measurements.

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Expecting the unexpected: how to manage forest landscapes in a highly uncertain future?

Expecting the unexpected: how to manage forest landscapes in a highly uncertain future?

Published June 29, 2022 by Marco Mina

In past blog posts we have been discussing how forest landscapes can be seen as interconnected and functional complex networks – and shown how network analysis can be combined with modelling and forest management. But is the so-called functional network approach really an efficient way to optimize forest landscape management and to promote ecological resilience in the face of unexpected global change stresses?

When we go hiking in the mountains, we know that before reaching an appealing and gratifying view we often need to walk up a few hundred meters inside a forest. Sounds natural, it has always been this way. We have cities, crop fields, grasslands, forests, rocky mountain peaks, etc. Forests are intrinsically part of our cultural landscape, and it is normal to think they will always be. Although such landscapes look simple, when we disentangle each single element, we realise that it is a very complex socio-ecological network, with both human and biophysical processes linked across different spatial and temporal scales.

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SUPERB forest restoration journey comes to life with the launch of new project website

SUPERB forest restoration journey comes to life with the launch of new project website

Published June 23, 2022 by Priscila Jordão

Funded by the European Commission to promote large-scale forest restoration in support of the EU Green Deal, the new Horizon 2020 project SUPERB, coordinated by EFI, has created quite a buzz on social media since its beginning in December 2021. With 36 consortium members, 90 associated partners, €20 million in EU funds and €90 million in in-kind contributions, SUPERB is likely to be the largest transnational forest restoration project globally.

Now, the enormous wealth of knowledge that will be generated by SUPERB’s restoration experts, as well as the latest updates on its multifold restoration activities, can be accessed online all in one place at forest-restoration.eu.

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New Policy Brief out now: Challenges and solutions for European forests and related value chains in times of climate changePhoto: Greg Rosenke

New Policy Brief out now: Challenges and solutions for European forests and related value chains in times of climate change

Published June 21, 2022 by Santiago Alarcón

How can we increase the sustainability and resilience of our European forests and related value chains in times of climate change? I-Maestro (Innovative forest management…

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The city of contrasts: Learning about forests and trees in Industriewald and Rheinelbepark in Gelsenkirchen

The city of contrasts: Learning about forests and trees in Industriewald and Rheinelbepark in Gelsenkirchen

Published June 15, 2022 by Cecilia Fraccaroli

Establishing the first marteloscope in an Urban Forest and discovering the transition of Gelsenkirchen

How do marteloscopes – these forest demonstration sites, where all trees are mapped and measured – and Gelsenkirchen, a city located in the so-called Ruhrpott fit together? You might be surprised that after being known as the “City of Thousand Fires” characterised by the coal, iron, and steel industry, and being a target of several air raids during World War II, Gelsenkirchen went through different economic and social changes. To boost its attractiveness for citizens, the city is now “shaping” its sustainability, investing in solar energy and converting numerous former mining sites into small city parks and urban forests [1]. The city of Gelsenkirchen is also a partner in the CLEARINGHOUSE project, which connects China and Europe and explores the potential of Urban Forests for more liveable cities. And as part of this big international project, we – four researchers from European Forest Institute’s Bonn Office – established two new marteloscopes in the Urban Forest in Gelsenkirchen. This was not only an interesting experience because they were the first marteloscope sites we set up in urban forests, but also because of the vegetation and the fact, that these forests are not used for wood production.

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