Resilience Blog

Happy International Day of Forests!

by Maria SchlossmacherMarch 21, 2019March 22, 2019 Leave a comment

Written by José Bolaños and Maria Schlossmacher

This year the International Day of Forests (IDF) will address the exciting theme “Forests and Education”. It is an occasion to raise awareness, to inform and to educate a broad public, different stakeholders and forest-managers about forest-related topics.

Forests cover one third of land on Earth, and they perform crucial and vital functions around the world. Trees improve our lives both at a grand scale and at the local level. Despite those benefits, deforestation and consequences of climate change are among other great challenges for forests.

National Forest Inventories as a multipurpose tool for urban forests

by Itziar Aguinaga GilMarch 19, 2019March 21, 2019 1 Comment

Written by Itziar Aguinaga Gil

Urban environmental challenges require on-site environmental solutions. As such, green infrastructure is widely proposed as a feasible measure towards the resilience and sustainable development of urban areas.

Urban forests represent the back-bone of urban green infrastructure by connecting the rural and city interface, and they provide both environmental and social benefits given that an adequate implementation and management is in place. However, all efforts may fail if there are not consistent and universal tools to quantify and characterize the necessary factors involved in the practice, policy and decision-making process. That is why we should consider the potentials of integrating urban forests within the National Forest Inventory.

by Maria SchlossmacherMarch 18, 2019 Leave a comment

Written by Alexander Held, Andrea Ortiz, Maria Schloßmacher

Two major storms, Eberhard and Franz, hit Germany and so its most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, last week. Experts are still assessing the full extent of the damage, but what is clear: this huge damage will have long-term impacts on forests. It also demonstrates once again the extent of enormous damages that are caused by storms and the related secondary damages like bark beetle infestation.

by Jose BolañosMarch 15, 2019March 15, 2019 Leave a comment

Voices of Resilience introduces Rupert Seidl, Professor of forest ecosystem management and Deputy Head of the Institute of Silviculture at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna, Austria. His research focuses on understanding how climate and disturbances affect forest ecosystem dynamics, and on applying this knowledge towards increasing the robustness of forest management in a changing world.

Wald-Wild Urteil aus Bayern / Silviculture and deer – an interesting verdict from Bavaria

by Alexander HeldMarch 12, 2019 Leave a comment

For English summary please scroll down.

Das höchste Bayerische Verwaltungsgericht hat im November 2018 ein höchstinteressantes Urteil gesprochen. Unter anderem sind drei sehr bedeutsame Positionen herausgearbeitet worden:

Die Jagd hat eine dienende Funktion.
Es gilt der Grundsatz “Wald vor Wild” auch für Eigenjagdbesitzer.
Eine verlässliche Grundlage zur Aufstellung des Abschussplanes ist das “Forstliche Gutachten”.

„Eingeführte Baumarten in europäischen Wäldern: Chancen und Herausforderungen“

by Frank KrummMarch 7, 2019 Leave a comment

Deutsche Übersetzung jetzt verfügbar!

Die Einführung von Baumarten ist ein bedeutendes und zugleich kontroverses Thema. In allen Ländern Europas sind eingeführte Arten einerseits als Chance für die Steigerung der Holzproduktion gesehen und können Alternativen für eine sich unter dem Einfluss des Klimawandels verändernde Artenzusammensetzung in Wäldern darstellen. Andererseits können eingeführte Arten auch die Ursache für den Verlust an Artenvielfalt sein, natürliche Ökosysteme stören und bei ungewünschter Verbreitung hohe Kosten verursachen.

Fire management in Viking style – looking for solutions together

by Laura NikinmaaMarch 5, 2019March 11, 2019 Leave a comment

The North is getting hot! Last year with its uncommonly warm and dry spring and summer caused lot of problems to the forest and agricultural sector in the Nordic countries. In addition, Sweden suffered from extensive wildfires. Due to climate change, summers like 2018 might become the new normal. To address this, the Nordic Council of Ministers launched a project group that is a collaboration between Nordic Agri Research (NKJ) and Nordic Forest Research (SNS). SNS held a workshop “Nordic forestry in times of extreme weather” in Copenhagen, Denmark, on the 1^st of March to discuss amongst the participants from the ministries and fire service, how Nordic collaboration could be strengthened to face the new challenges. Laura Nikinmaa from the European Forest Institute’s Resilience Programme was invited to be a guest speaker together with Marc Castellnou from the Pau Costa Foundation and Martin Vendelbo from the Danish Emergency Management Agency.

Sparking firesmart policies in the EU – let’s train together!

by Alexander HeldFebruary 28, 2019March 11, 2019 Leave a comment

The European Commission recently published a report entitled: Forest Fires, Sparking firesmart policies in the EU.

Forest fires constitute a serious and increasing threat throughout Europe, particularly in Greece, Spain, France, Italy and Portugal. Currently we are also observing more and more fires in the temperate zone of Central Europe. Despite a decreasing trend in the number of fires and areas burned, observed in some countries since the 1980s, larger and more damaging fires (i.e. ‘megafires’) are challenging the suppression capacities of many wildfire protection programmes across Europe.

Über ökologisches Gold und Borkenkäfer im Bonner Stadtwald

by Maria SchlossmacherFebruary 26, 2019February 26, 2019 Leave a comment

Von Lisa Prior & Maria Schlossmacher

Um über die Waldarbeiten im Bonner Stadtwald aufzuklären, die vielerorts erst einmal auf Unverständnis stoßen, lud das Amt für Stadtgrün der Stadt Bonn für den Nachmittag des 19. Februar 2019 zu einem Waldspaziergang ein. Stadtförster Sebastian Korintenberg gab den interessierten Bonner BürgerInnen Einblicke in die derzeit durchgeführten Holzerntearbeiten und sprach über die Folgen des Borkenkäferbefalls.

by Gesche SchifferdeckerFebruary 21, 2019February 21, 2019 1 Comment

When you google the term “Resilience”, you get heavily overwhelmed: The term is used in many contexts, both in science and practice, from Psychology to Education, from city planning to climate change adaptation. Obviously, “Resilience” is established jargon, but seems to mean different things in different fields.