Category: Climate change

Forests as critical infrastructure? Integrated Forest Management and recreation for forests and people – Virtual Excursion during the Urban Forestry Days 23-24 March

Forests as critical infrastructure? Integrated Forest Management and recreation for forests and people – Virtual Excursion during the Urban Forestry Days 23-24 March

Published May 20, 2021 by Vera Knill

How to bring more than 600 policy planners, decision-makers, practitioners, researchers and urban forestry enthusiasts into the forest in times of social distancing? The first day of the Urban Forestry Days (23 – 24 March 2021) held a special highlight for the participants, who joined from over 68 countries all around the globe. The two-day collaborative event of integrated Urban Forestry activities was hosted by the European Forest Institute (EFI), the European Forum on Urban Forestry (EFUF) and the Horizon 2020 CLEARING HOUSE project.

“Public involvement and engagement bring valuable information to decision-making processes”,
Renate Späth

After a day packed with the latest urban forestry developments, insights on integrated forest management and lively discussions about the role of urban forests for co-creating more sustainable cities, a virtual excursion brought the participants right into Kottenforst. Located in the southwest of Bonn in North Rhine-Westphalia, the 4.000 hectares peri-urban forest area serves as a stage to enjoy nature, recreate, meet people and engage in discussions. A group of urban forestry experts accompanied the visual experience. While live-commenting the virtual excursion, they shed light on environmental education, microhabitats, marteloscopes and the importance of enabling and enhancing dialogue about forests and forest policy. As part of a Q&A session, facilitator Maria Schloßmacher (EFI) encouraged participants to share their thoughts and ask questions directly to the experts.

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Wird in Europa tatsächlich mehr Holz geerntet? Neue Studie stellt Forschungsergebnisse in Frage

Wird in Europa tatsächlich mehr Holz geerntet? Neue Studie stellt Forschungsergebnisse in Frage

Published April 28, 2021 by Gesche Schifferdecker

Interview mit Forstexperten zu neuen Forschungsergebnissen

Heute ist mit “Concerns about reported harvests in European forests” in Nature eine vom European Forest Institute (EFI) koordinierte Antwort auf die umstrittene Nature-Studie von Ceccherini et al. “Abrupt increase in harvested forest area over Europe after 2015” (Abrupte Zunahme der geernteten Waldfläche in Europa nach 2015) veröffentlicht worden, die deren Ergebnisse stark in Zweifel zieht. In dem Antwort-Artikel zeigen EFI’s Direktor Marc Palahí und 29 Kolleg*innen aus 13 europäischen Ländern, dass die von der Gemeinsamen Forschungsstelle der Europäischen Kommission berichteten großen Waldverluste vor allem auf methodische Fehler zurückzuführen sind.

Mit Jürgen Bauhus, Marc Hanewinkel (beide Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), Marcus Lindner (EFI), Rupert Seidl und Cornelius Senf (beide Technische Universität München) haben wir verschiedene an der Antwort-Studie beteiligte deutsche Wissenschaftler befragt, um die wissenschaftlichen Ergebnisse in einen größeren waldpolitischen, ökonomischen und ökologischen Kontext einordnen zu können und die methodischen Aspekte etwas genauer zu beleuchten.

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Webinar “Policy challenges of integrating biodiversity conservation in forest management – the way forward”

Webinar “Policy challenges of integrating biodiversity conservation in forest management – the way forward”

Published April 12, 2021 by Gesche Schifferdecker

On March 30, the European Network Integrate hosted the webinar “Policy challenges of integrating biodiversity conservation in forest management – the way forward”, gathering over 100 attendees. The webinar brought together forest policy experts from the French, German, Italian and Swiss governments to compare country perspectives and lessons learned on how to advance forest biodiversity conservation in Europe, in relation to the new EU Forest Strategy.

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When wells run dry our oaks decline, too

When wells run dry our oaks decline, too

Published April 9, 2021 by Laura Nikinmaa

How groundwater access impacts the resilience of oaks to drought

Fresh water is essential to all living creatures and humans have become particularly well-versed in using it for both business and pleasure. We use it grow our food, to run our industries and even to flush our toilets in many countries. Much of the fresh water used in the world comes from the groundwater, and the extraction of groundwater is likely to increase more in the future, partly due to droughts. However, a recent study conducted by researchers from the University of Freiburg and published in Scientific Reports shows that extracting the groundwater to water our gardens can cause serious problems to forests growing on the areas from where the water is taken.

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Urban Forests in the light of sustainability transition – kick-off at Urban Forestry Days 2021

Urban Forests in the light of sustainability transition – kick-off at Urban Forestry Days 2021

Published March 29, 2021 by Vera Knill

Cities need to learn from nature in order to organise themselves. (Vicente Guallart, IAAC) The first day of the Urban Forestry Days 2021 kicked-off on…

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Marteloscopes and Carbon – a missing piece of the puzzle?

Marteloscopes and Carbon – a missing piece of the puzzle?

Published March 21, 2021 by Huntley Brownell

Witten by Huntley Brownell and Andrew Stratton

Many readers of this blog are likely familiar with marteloscopes (if not, click here to read more). We think our story demonstrates the remarkable educational potential of this tool, and we would like to share it with you.

Our story begins deep in the Black Forest, outside of Freiburg in Germany. It was long, long ago, before corona times: the autumn of 2018. We were part of a group of MSc students studying Forest and Nature Management on a study tour from the University of Copenhagen, and we were brought to visit the Rosskopf marteloscope.

By now we all understand the limitations of virtual meetings; back then the forty of us, carefree and not at all socially distanced, took for granted the vibrant educational environment of in-person learning. With tablets in hand, groups of students and professors explored the marteloscope, observing, discussing, debating – sometimes passionately – the harvesting trade-offs we were considering in the exercise. Questions arose: how will our decisions affect stand biodiversity? How will the stand develop in the future if we harvest certain trees now? Are some microhabitats more important than others? What is biodiversity anyway? How much is that tree worth?

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“Unser Wald stirbt vor unseren Augen” – spannender Doku-Tipp

“Unser Wald stirbt vor unseren Augen” – spannender Doku-Tipp

Published March 19, 2021 by Gabriela Rueda

Stürme, Trockenheit, Borkenkäfer – unsere deutschen Wälder standen in den vergangenen Jahren vor großen Herausforderungen.

Wussten Sie, dass viele Förster*innen in den letzten Jahren nicht nur mit großen Waldschäden zu kämpfen hatten, sondern auch unter Druck geraten sind, wenn sie wieder aufforsten müssen? Können Sie sich vorstellen, wie unser Wald in 100 Jahren aussehen wird? Was genau muss getan werden, um die Resilienz der Wälder zu erhöhen?

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Join us for a virtual excursion during the Urban Forestry Days

Join us for a virtual excursion during the Urban Forestry Days

Published March 15, 2021 by Vera Knill

Cannot wait for the Urban Forestry Days (March 23-24, 2021) to be out in the forest? Our 1-minute conference trailer invites you on a journey through urban forests and green spaces from Beijing to Bonn.

The two-day collaborative event of integrated activities on Urban Forestry, hosted by the European Forest Institute (EFI), the European Forum on Urban Forestry (EFUF) and the Horizon 2020 CLEARING HOUSE project, brings together advanced practitioners, researchers, sector-leading policymakers, and everyone eager to learn about urban forestry’s latest developments in and beyond Europe. The online conference will be split into two main themes. While Day 1 addresses integrated forest management, Day 2 is themed on urban forests and health infrastructure. Further, there will be a specific focus on Sino-European collaboration. The conference will thus be run in English with Mandarin translations. Join us for lively and interactive talks and register here to secure a virtual seat.

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“Dialogue with interest groups in the forest needs to be intensified” – an interview with Thomas Haußmann

Marteloscope exercise Thomas Haussmann and Jakob Derks

“Dialogue with interest groups in the forest needs to be intensified” – an interview with Thomas Haußmann

Published March 12, 2021 by Gesche Schifferdecker

Thomas Hausmann, who has a background in forestry and is working with the the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture since many years, was one of the initiators of the European Network Integrate, which is connecting people from forest management, and nature conservation, science and
policy-making to overcome political polarization and limited dialogue between sectoral silos. With almost 20 member countries and more than 100 demonstration sites, the network promotes the integration of nature conservation into sustainable forest management. We have spoken with Thomas about the history of the network, challenges faced and future perspectives.

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Innovating with forests’ resources and integrated mindsets

Innovating with forests’ resources and integrated mindsets

Published February 9, 2021 by Gabriela Rueda

Through human history, forests have provided a great variety of natural resources such as woods, nuts, and fruits. While we have gotten accustomed to these conventional resources, the current environmental crisis has pushed interdisciplinary research to innovate with bio-based materials as an effort to contribute to a bio-based economy.

For the past decade, a great variety of bio-based materials have been developed to replace synthetic packaging, structural materials, leather, and other fossil fuel dependent materials. Many of these are made of agricultural waste such as corn starch, leaves from different plants, coffee waste, and a large etcetera. Moreover, other bio-based materials are developed by harnessing living systems such as mycelium (the root of fungi), algae, and bacteria. This relatively new practical approach (in material design) is called Biodesign.

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