This 3rd of October is World Habitat Day! To celebrate the occasion, Elisabeth Pötzelsberger, Head of Resilience Programme at the European Forest Institute (EFI) and…
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Interview by Gesche Schifferdecker & Rosa Castañeda
Dr. Gerhard Langenberger is an expert on sustainable land use policy working at giz, the German Corporation for International Cooperation. Before joining giz, Gerhard coordinated two large international joint research projects dealing with natural rubber for the University of Hohenheim. We talked about his field of expertise – natural rubber – and learned why discussions on deforestation didn’t play a dominant role in the rubber sector in the past. Furthermore, we wanted to find out about the challenges and opportunities for smallholder farmers in Asian countries as well as for international forest governance – and about the local and the international environment influence each other. We also explored responsibilities for companies and potential incentives for manufacturers to use materials from fair trade and sustainable sources. Finally, we learned what “deforestation-free” actually means – and how we as consumers can influence the market to reduce land degradation and support sustainable forest management and biodiversity conservation.
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If you are confused and intimidated by the sheer number of tools to analyze connectivity related questions, don’t worry. We feel you.
We’ve all been there – we have an interesting research question, we collected data, but we come to a screeching halt when we are faced with the numerous tools in the field of connectivity science. Every paper we read points us in a different direction, and at the end we are left wondering which one we should use and why.
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by Beatrice Bellavia
Can you evoke the typical scent of a forest? Close your eyes and imagine walking down a path of needles, that is all it takes. But did you know that trees are not only oxygen generators – but produce large amounts of volatile organic compounds? It is basically as if they were breathing, and this is precisely where the unmistakable forest smell comes from.
Recently, I have experienced how trees breath – but guess what: not in the forest, but in a museum. It happened when I approached the immersive installation „ATMOSPHERIC FOREST“. In this installation, thanks to the augmented reality technology, I was able to navigate through the „breathing“ trees of the Swiss forest of Pfynwald. I watched the forest from the bottom up, followed the path through the tree trunk until it brought the eye far up above the trees – yes, like a bird.
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Im Rahmen der ARD-Themenwoche „Dürre” hat auch die Politik-Talkshow hart aber fair am 29. August sich des Themas angenommen und über die Folgen der Dürre für Mensch und Natur diskutiert. In diesem Zusammenhang ging es natürlich auch um die Gefahr von Waldbränden und das Waldbrandjahr 2022, das bereits als trauriges „Rekordjahr“ bezeichnet wird. Dafür wurde unser EFI-Kollege Alex Held als Experte eingeladen. In einem Einzelgespräch mit Moderator Frank Plasberg räumte der WKR-Projektleiter und Waldbrandökologe mit Mythen über Waldbrand-Ursachen auf und erklärt, inwieweit Deutschland und unsere Wälder auf diese intensiven Brände vorbereitet sind.
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Have you ever thought about how the consumption of some of our favourite products can be linked to deforestation? Or how political decisions and policies can influence such linkages? The EU consumes significant amounts of products made from agricultural commodities, such as cocoa, palm oil, and soy, and the related agricultural expansion of these commodities causes vast forest loss in countries of production in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. Various trading companies operate supply chains across the globe and move the products to Europe for our consumption, making them important actors in controlling forest loss linked to agricultural products. In the coming years, new EU regulations will set increased obligations for traders in order to reduce EU market-driven forest loss. However, it is not sure how traders will react to the new regulations and how their decisions could influence the impact of the EU regulation to limit EU market-driven deforestation.
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Record breaking temperatures, minimal rainfall, drying rivers and burning forests. The news from this summer show how acutely the warming climate is affecting our environment and lives. To me, the damages to forests due to fires, drought and insect outbreaks are particularly worrisome as we as a society are counting on forests to sequester our carbon emissions, to replace the fossil fuel products and to foster biodiversity that is rapidly declining. This concern on the capacity of forests to cope with increased disturbances started years ago and led me to pursue a PhD on forest resilience and how it could be improved with forest management. Now it is time to summarise my work from the last four years.
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by Silke Jacobs, Sara Filipek, Gert-Jan Nabuurs & Bas Lerink
‘Timber Mafia’, ‘Notorious corruption’ and ‘Destruction of last virgin forests’. News articles about Romanian forests and their management are dominated by headlines like these or with a likewise tendency. But we were wondering: Is that really the only thing we should know about Romanian forests? Or are there also examples of good and sustainable forest management – as well as protection of primary forests?
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Dürre, Borkenkäfer, und immer wieder Waldbrände – der Freiburger Forstwissenschaftler Jürgen Bauhus sagt, dem Wald gehe es schlechter als in den 1980er Jahren. Im Politikpodcast…
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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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