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Resilience Blog Posts

Forest Governance: How to orientate in the labyrinth of international forest policies?

Published September 12, 2019 by Maria Schlossmacher

By Lukas Giessen and Carmen Rodríguez

In this Blogpost Lukas Giessen and Carmen Rodríguez, both EFI staff, provide us with an insight into a recently published article on the numerous elements of international forest-related policy. The paper indicates that the many policies addressing forests in a way or another are fragmented and often conflict with one another, possibly leading to unsuccessful forest protection efforts of many governments around the globe. But this fragmentation is also found to hold promise for actors in finding allies to their own missions.

Because it is quite tricky to identify the actually relevant elements of a fragmented set of international policies, we developed a new method for mapping the entire governance architecture of international forest policy, using the United Nations Forum on Forests’ (UNFF) deliberations as key reference.

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EFI looks at lowering its own carbon footprint

EFI looks at lowering its own carbon footprint

Published September 2, 2019 by Sami El Geneidy

Limiting global warming to 1.5°C requires societies to simultaneously work on land-based mitigation options and reduce emissions in other sectors. This means approximately 45% reduction in CO2 emissions from 2010 levels by 2030. As an environmental management trainee at EFI, my task is to look at the environmental impacts of our own work and our daily operations.

In terms of climate change mitigation, the most important categories for EFI are most likely procurement of goods and services, energy consumption and employee work travel. 

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Resilience: one-off vs continuous disturbance

Published August 26, 2019 by jose.bolanos

In an effort to foster a definition of resilience in the forestry field, we decided to establish a series of interviews introducing scientists who deal with this term every day. Today meet Elena Cantarello. She is a lecturer in sustainability science and conducts research on the dynamics and thresholds of ecosystem services at Bournemouth University, e.g. by measuring the resilience of forests in terms of recovery, resistance and net change after climate change, disease outbreak and extensive animal grazing.

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Der tote Taucher im Wald – Gedanken zur Feuerbekämpfung aus der Luft

Der tote Taucher im Wald – Gedanken zur Feuerbekämpfung aus der Luft

Published August 9, 2019 by Alexander Held

Vielleicht erinnert sich noch der ein oder andere an den Tatort „Der tote Taucher im Wald“. Ein Löschflugzeug schöpft Wasser, ein Taucher landet in einem Waldbrand…Die gegenwärtige Diskussion über Löschflugzeuge in Deutschland erinnerte mich jedenfalls daran.

Während wir schon jetzt bis August 2019 teilweise überraschende Ausmaße der Waldbrände feststellen müssen, wird kontrovers über den Umgang mit Feuer und den möglichen Löschmöglichkeiten diskutiert. Auch wir haben uns zum Thema integriertes Feuermanagement hier auf diesem Blog hinreichend geäußert und wollen nun auch zur Diskussion über Löschflugzeuge beitragen, im Folgenden ein paar Gedanken.

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Green jobs: different names, same thing? Perspectives from half-year reflection of the project’s milestones

Green jobs: different names, same thing? Perspectives from half-year reflection of the project’s milestones

Published August 1, 2019 by Maria Schlossmacher

The change to a greener economy offers important opportunities to create decent jobs and create social inclusion, besides leading the global economy to a path of sustainable growth…These changes give an opportunity to change all the shortcomings in the forest sector.

(Forest Europe, 2014)

Written by Juliet Achieng

The mention of green jobs elicits different reactions among people. For some, it is the hope of better tidings for the forest sector, for others it’s just a fancy term that has no clear meaning while for others it just brings more confusion and questions than answers. But who will shed light on this buzz word? The Green Jobs project brings together three international organizations (European Forest Institute, International Union of Forest Research Organizations and International Forestry Students Association) with research and networking prowess to attempt to give answers to this puzzle. We also aim to shed light on the changes in employment that have been happening as well as the drivers of these changes in different regions and what trends could be anticipated in the future with regards to employment in the sector. Skills and competencies needed for future employment are also a vital component of our project. Through a clearly defined research approach, consisting of a literature review, workshop, survey and rapid employers’ interviews, we aim to adequately tackle these topics and provide a more elaborate picture. 

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EFI as chartered member of PyroLife

EFI as chartered member of PyroLife

Published July 29, 2019 by Maria Schlossmacher

Deadly wildfires in the past two years and the heatwave we are facing throughout in Europe this year are a glimpse of what to expect in the future. Therefore, the European Union has granted 4 million Euro for PyroLife, a project in which framework a new generation of experts will be trained in integrated fire management. We are happy to announce that we will take part in the newly established project.

PyroLife is the first integrated doctoral training programme on wildfires globally and will train 15 PhD candidates across Europe, coordinated by Wageningen University & Research.

Within this project, the European Forest Institute will supervise one PhD student and further offers various fire related trainings through the SURE project.

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Polish-German exchange on wildfire prevention

Polish-German exchange on wildfire prevention

Published July 23, 2019 by Alexander Held

Written by Michael Herrmann, ForestFireWatch and Alexander Held

„One firefighter within the first 15 minutes is worth more in the forest than 100 firefighters after an hour” – motto of Polish forest fire protection services, emphasizing the importance of initial attack

From 6-7 June 2019, Polish forest officers from the State Forests organization, firefighter and representatives of the Forest Research Institute met with members of the German volunteer organization “ForestFireWatch” for an exchange of knowledge and experience in Rzepin (Forest District), Poland. Main objective of the meeting was the exchange of experience in the field of wildfire prevention.

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The SDG-tenure nexus in forest landscapes: applying a rights-based approach

The SDG-tenure nexus in forest landscapes: applying a rights-based approach

Published July 17, 2019 by Maria Schlossmacher

written by Lukas Giessen, Pia Katila and Maria Schlossmacher

As a chartered member of the Global Landscape Forum (GLF), EFI Bonn was delighted to host a jointly organized event together with our long-term partners and friends from IUFRO-WFSE, FAO, and Luke at the GLF in Bonn, Sunday 23 June 2019.

Through an introductory presentation by Pia Katila (IUFRO-WFSE, Luke) followed by a panel discussion, several questions were discussed: How are tenure and rights included in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?  What is the evidence on the links between rights/tenure and sustainable landscapes? Why has the progress on strengthening tenure rights of local communities been so low? And what are the most promising approaches to strengthening the link?

The SDGs call for equal access and rights to land and other productive resources. Pia Katila noted that rural land rights are implicitly included in three SDGs: SDG 1 on poverty, SDG 2, on hunger and SDG 5, on gender. However, tenure and rights are instrumental for moving forward with several other SDGs as well, such as e.g. SDG 8 on employment and economic growth.  They are also crucial for SDG 10 to reduce inequality within and among countries, SDG 14 to conserve and sustainably use coastal areas and mangrove forests and SDG 15 on protection and sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems such as forests.

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