Outbreaks of bark beetles have devastated vast swaths of forests across Europe, flooding media headlines and concerning forest owners, managers, policy-makers, and the public. The outbreaks affected many countries such as Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, Germany, Sweden, or France and challenged not only forest management but entire societies. The unprecedented areas of dead and often...
It sounds like a paradise: Being the largest protected river basin in Europe, the transboundary Mura-Drava-Danube is about to become the first five-country (Austria, Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia and Serbia) biosphere reserve in the world under the auspices of UNESCO. The reserve covers an area of about 8,300 km2, which is comparable to more than one million soccer fields. Being extremely rich in biodiversity, it harbours high ecological and...
Climate instability, a constantly changing global timber market and an increasing social demand for nonproduction functions of forests put our forest management under big pressure. To be proactive means to reflect these growing challenges in our strategies of sustainable and multifunctional forest management. Currently, the Czech forestry sector once again explores the possibilities of a...
Watch this short video to learn more about the marteloscopes, the innovative training tool for the visualization of silvicultural decisions. Exercises in the Martelskop areas make it possible to slip into the role of foresters and make virtual forest decisions using a specially developed software. Go to the iplus website to check out the full...
If you ask stakeholders all over Europe “What should we do with our old-growth forests?”, you can expect eyebrows to be raised. Discussions start with questions continuing to circle at policy level and in academia on how old-growth forest should be defined. Similarly, we face unresolved issues on how to implement the targets of the...
In our second Integrate Communications Workshop, we will focus on “Engaging with Media”. Together with science and environmental journalists, we will learn how media mechanisms work and what they are seeking to hear from policymakers, practitioners and researchers. Jointly, we will also discuss the language to use when communicating with media, and how you can...
You can be a climate hero following these practical advices from the Estonian State Forest Management Centre (abbreviated RMK) to reduce your carbon footprint. For example, travelling inside your country during holidays, choosing products made from wood pulp or fibre instead of synthetic materials, planting trees and more.
How should we best manage our forests? This is the guiding question behind the virtual communication workshop series the secretariat of the European Integrate Network is initiating. Being aware that there is no single answer to this question, in our first training on “Building a Narrative”, we engaged with 19 stakeholders from forest policy, management,...
A Turkish research team is studying the impacts of different planning strategies on tree microhabitats as they are an indicator of biodiversity in forest ecosystems. By EFIMED Photo: Irem Tüfekcioğlu
Before the Amendments to the “Nature Protection Act” were adopted in the Republic of Croatia in 2018, the Ministry responsible for nature protection required that nature protection conditions were fully incorporated into forest management plans. If the conditions were met and approved by the Ministry responsible for nature protection, the plan could then be sent for approval by the Ministry responsible for forestry. However, the Amendments of the Nature Protection Act, and the adoption of the new “Forest Act and Ordinance...
