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Author: Cecilia Fraccaroli

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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Growing the community of forest policy, media and science 

Growing the community of forest policy, media and science 

Published March 8, 2022 by Cecilia Fraccaroli

Registration for the International Forest Policy Meeting open (27-29th April 2022)! 

We are excited and pleased to open the registration for the 4th International Forest Policy Meeting (IFPM4). To enhance scientific exchange and strengthen the forest research networks, the European Forest Institute (EFI), EFI’s Forest Policy Research Network coordinated by the University of Life Sciences in Vienna (BOKU) and Wageningen University and Research, organise three lively days dedicated to the forest policy and governance research with a special focus on forest policy-media-science interface. Moreover, IFPM4 is a platform for early-career and experienced scientists working in forest policy and governance to present, discuss and inform on the latest research. This year, we decided to shed light to the increasingly relevant role that media play in communicating scientific findings and science-informed decision-making. The event will feature different thematic sessions including, keynotes, round tables, graphic recordings, panels and plenary debate, young researchers’ competitions and oral presentations involving experts from all over the world. 

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Best practice for forest disturbance management in Europe

Published March 8, 2021 by Cecilia Fraccaroli

From storm events to megafires, from drought to bark beetle damage – with intensified forest disturbance regimes during the last decades we have learned that if we want to mitigate forest risks and prevent negative impacts, we cannot only focus on emergency response and recovery. Thus, preventing disturbances and making forests more resilient has significantly gained in importance along with the insight that we need to learn how to live with intensified disturbances. In the past three years, several networking activities and events as well as fast track sharing of experiences and knowledge during forest related risks crisis have been organized in the framework of the project SUstaining and Enhancing REsilience of European Forests (SURE). These activities were aiming at promoting and further developing a European Forest Risk Facility, an evolving knowledge hub consisting of several organisations and experts from all over Europe, coming from the fields of academia, forest practice and risk management, policy and society. After three years (2017-2020) of fruitful activities within SURE, the project reached an end, and we use this opportunity to look back, reflect upon and summarize our work.

Those who are interested in an overview of all the events and activities that took place within the project are invited to check out the record of activities on our website.

Moreover, the latest outputs that were already presented during our final conference in August 2020 are now available online. First, the tool compendium was compiled as an open platform documenting all the learned lessons across Europe collected during the SURE project. Second, we created a map of forest risk management actors, describing the existing responsibilities and disturbance risk governance structures in several European countries. 

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Mapping forest disturbance risk management actors

Published February 26, 2021 by Cecilia Fraccaroli

From storm events to megafires, from drought to bark beetle damage – with intensified forest disturbance regimes during the last decades we have learned that if we want to mitigate forest risks and prevent negative impacts, we cannot only focus on emergency response and recovery. Thus, preventing disturbances and making forests more resilient has significantly gained in importance along with the insight that we need to learn how to live with intensified disturbances. In the past three years, several networking activities and events as well as fast track sharing of experiences and knowledge during forest related risks crisis have been organized in the framework of the project SUstaining and Enhancing REsilience of European Forests (SURE). These activities were aiming at promoting and further developing a European Forest Risk Facility, an evolving knowledge hub consisting of several organisations and experts from all over Europe, coming from the fields of academia, forest practice and risk management, policy and society. After three years (2017-2020) of fruitful activities within SURE, the project reached an end, and we use this opportunity to look back, reflect upon and summarize our work.

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Towards improved disturbance risk management in European forests: serving the needs and building on positive experiences of different countries

Towards improved disturbance risk management in European forests: serving the needs and building on positive experiences of different countries

Published September 28, 2020 by Cecilia Fraccaroli

Day 2 of the SURE conference

Where are shortcomings in effective disturbance risk management in different European Countries? How can we move from often short-term decisions to long-term oriented disturbance mitigation and resource use in policy-making and practice to create a more resilient forest sector? How can the various actors involved in implementing measures for prevention and preparedness be better supported in view of future disturbance events? How do both policy makers and practitioners assess the importance of cross-sectoral and cross-country knowledge exchange and learning?

We discussed these questions with more than 40 policy makers and some practitioners from 17 countries on the 27th of August as part of the second day of the virtual conference of the SURE project. A Policy Brief distributed beforehand, provided a synthesis on natural disturbance risk management based on science, practice and policy perspectives. The key messages from the first day of the conference were also an inspiration for the discussion: Alex Giurca presented a graphic reporting capturing the issues discussed on day 1. Christoph Hartebrodt, based on his knowledge on the European Forest Risk Facility initiative, provided another perspective on the topics covered. After presenting the activities and research done during three years of SURE, an interactive session with policy perspectives on risk management paradigms gathered views from Germany, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland, Ireland, Austria, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the Czech Republic. 

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Enhancing resilience of forests to disturbances – why networks are essential. Day 1 of the SURE conference.

Published September 9, 2020 by Cecilia Fraccaroli

“Collaboration is key to enhance forest resilience.” This was the opening message given by Marcus Lindner (project coordinator of SURE) when introducing the SURE conference and the European Forest Risk Facility on the 26th of August. During this first day, more than 70 participants joined the conference, from 25 different countries, representing science, practice and policy. Seven presenters from the European Forest Risk Facility network reflected upon the significance of collaboration highlighting the importance of immediate response, exchange of experts, prevention, networking, and media interaction to raise public awareness. The whole conference was supported by the graphic reporting of Alex Giurca who combined the skills of a note taker and artist to provide a visual and captivating representation of the conference. Such tools are a creative and immediate support to decision making providing an illustration and key messages of complex presentations and discussions.

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Registration open: SURE final conference: “Collaboration – key to forest disturbance management in a new decade”

Registration open: SURE final conference: “Collaboration – key to forest disturbance management in a new decade”

Published August 4, 2020 by Cecilia Fraccaroli

The European Forest Institute kindly invites you to the conference “Collaboration – key to forest disturbance management in a new decade”, taking place on 26-27 August 2020. Join the virtual conference to hear about best practice examples and lessons learned in disturbance management from Forest Risk Facility network members!

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