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Month: November 2018

Equipping young forest leaders for a changing work environment

Equipping young forest leaders for a changing work environment

Published November 30, 2018 by Gesche Schifferdecker

New Joint EFI-IFSA-IUFRO Project on “Global student networking and green jobs” analyses changing employment in the forest sector and prepares current forest students and young scientists for future leadership.

The forest sector has been facing significant changes in recent years due to various challenges including globalization, international trade, and climate change.
Naturally, this has also changed the nature of forest sector employment. Forestry careers have expanded beyond traditional forest administration and industry jobs. New ‘green jobs’ match a broader societal awareness for forest ecosystem services, climate change mitigation and adaptation, environmental education, recreation, tourism, and nature protection, for example. These shifts in labour market trends call for a new generation of graduates with a strong foundation of knowledge in the context of current global issues.
“The crucial question we need to answer is: Are we, the world’s forestry students of today, prepared for the new expectations and skills society is placing in our hands as future land managers and forest policy decision makers?” emphasises Dolores Pavlovic, President of the International Forestry Students’ Association (IFSA).
A new project run by European Forest Institute (EFI) in close collaboration with IFSA and the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) has now been started to tackle this question. The joint project is generously funded by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) and will be hosted by EFI in Bonn, Germany.

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Social representations of nature: citizens’ relation with urban trees

Social representations of nature: citizens’ relation with urban trees

Published November 29, 2018 by Rik De Vreese

Can urban foresters really win the minds and hearts of urban dwellers when stressing the ecosystem services forests and trees provide?

Street trees are contested elements in the urban landscape, and the source of many complaints towards local authorities and tree managing agencies. Discussions on street trees can be intense and emotional, so it is good to understand where the discussions are grounded in and to understand citizens’ relations with trees. In this post I will explore if we can build on the concept of social representations to find win-win solutions regarding urban tree management.
Social representations explain how different social groups develop different understandings of an issue, based on their values, understanding, beliefs, knowledge, practice etc. (Moscovici 2000; Buijs et al. 2008). They are not individual cognitive representations, but socially constructed through social interaction, both within and between groups (Buijs et al. 2011).

Different perspectives of a tree. Source: www.cyburbia.org
Different perspectives of a tree. Source: www.cyburbia.org
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Ireland: deer management in native woodlands

Ireland: deer management in native woodlands

Published November 28, 2018 by Alexander Held

The management of deer in native woodlands has become a central issue in recent years. This is primarily due to increasing deer populations, the expansion of forest area through afforestation, introductions of new deer species and the re-distribution/transportation of extant naturalized deer species. Native and broad-leaved woodlands are particularly vulnerable to deer damage through browsing, grazing pressure, fraying and bole scoring. Conservation and wood quality objectives can be seriously compromised.
Negative ecological impacts from excessive deer pressure on woodland structure and ground vegetation community composition has negative knock-on effects on all other assemblages including invertebrates, birds, mammals and soil fauna. Conversely, a sustainable deer presence has positive ecological impacts and recreational value, especially as revenue through game management can be appreciable to woodland owners.

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Call for Abstracts: The European Forum on Urban Forestry/EFUF 2019

Call for Abstracts: The European Forum on Urban Forestry/EFUF 2019

Published November 26, 2018 by Gesche Schifferdecker

We are hereby announcing the International Conference Urban Forests – Full of Energy taking place inCologne, Germany, from 22 – 24 May 2019 and call for abstracts to contribute to our discussions. Deadline for abstract submission is 1 February 2019

THE CONFERENCE AND VENUE
Since 20 years, the European Forum on Urban Forestry (EFUF) is a unique meeting place for forest and greenspace managers, planners, architects, researchers, public authorities and policy makers to share interdisciplinary experience and good practices within the field of urban greening, urban forests and urban forestry.
Urban forests are vibrant places for multifaceted recreational activities, social gathering and mental restoration, but also provide biomass for an urban bioeconomy. They are full of energy. And so is the venue of this years’ conference: the German Sport University Cologne – the perfect location to explore energetic interactions of trees and human beings.

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“Spurring curiosity and appreciation of European forests”

“Spurring curiosity and appreciation of European forests”

Published November 19, 2018 by Theresa Frei
Marc Menningmann (Raute Film)
Credits: Marc Menningmann (Raute Film)

Discussions with young people from across the continent at the European Summer School “Creating Forest Experiences”

To “spur curiosity and appreciation” by putting a proof of origin on forest products – this was only one out of many ideas discussed during the one-week long European Summer School “Creating Forest Experiences”. The event was organized by the Protection of the German Forest Organisation (“Schutzgemeinschaft Deutscher Wald”) in Freusburg, Rhineland-Palatinate from 9th – 13th July 2018. Young adults from various backgrounds learned and debated about the economic, ecological and social function of forests. The programme included keynotes and interactive workshops. In the course of the week, the participants developed forest projects on recreation for young people. Furthermore, they created the idea of the “interactive forest path”: a hiking trail where you can choose different options that bring you to distinct parts and stories of the forest.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAkyybncBJE&w=560&h=315]

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Experiences of uneven-aged forest management in the Czech Republic

Experiences of uneven-aged forest management in the Czech Republic

Published November 8, 2018 by Alexander Held

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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Discussions on impacts of silvicultural interventions: the Falkenberg Marteloscope

Discussions on impacts of silvicultural interventions: the Falkenberg Marteloscope

Published November 5, 2018 by amschuck

from Andreas Schuck and Loic Duchamp
In the beautiful autumn forest in Vosges du Nord – Forêt de Bitche, France, we organized a training session with 44 foresters from public and private forests on 18th and 19th of October 2018. The Marteloscope ‘Falkenberg’ was set up in the course of European Forest Institute’s Integrate+ project, and it is located on state forest land in a Nature Reserve, in the heart of the Northern Vosges Regional Nature Park (French part of the Transboundary Biosphere Reserve Vosges du Nord–Pfälzerwald). 60%, or 76.283 ha of the park are covered by forest, composed of 58% broadleaves and 42% conifers.
One main conservation objective in that nature reserve is to increase forest naturalness. This is achieved by designating strictly protected areas and preserving or restoring forest composition and potential habitats in managed forests.

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