The post Gearing up for the 9th Ministerial Conference: FOREST EUROPE’s Expert Level Meeting set the stage first appeared on FOREST EUROPE.

With this second FoRISK webinar on the topic of drought, “Drought Adaptation of Forests in Europe – Practical Strategies,” FOREST EUROPE, in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), continues the journey to delve into measures we might take at regional, national or international level to support Europe’s forests to adapt to drought, to unravel the science behind these recommendations and provide practical guidance on the measures.

Extreme drought event in Central Europe in 2018: Its impact on beech forests and their recovery

The first presentation by Ansgar Kahmen, Professor of Physiological Plant Ecology and Head of the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Basel, Switzerland, focused on the results of his research on the extreme drought in Central Europe in 2018 and its devastating impact on forest trees. In particular, the vulnerability of European beech was discussed, but also whether recovery is possible. First, he explained that 2018 cannot be considered an isolated event, but is part of a trajectory towards a hotter and dryer climate. Six of the nine hottest summers of the past 120 years occurred in the last decade.

Since the 1980s, an increasing evaporative demand in the atmosphere has been observed, accompanied by a progressive decline in tree health. In beech trees, increasing crown damage became visible, which became even more severe after the extreme years of 2003 and 2018. Measurements of hydraulic conductivity in 2018 showed that vascular transport in beech trees was reduced or interrupted by up to 80%, and had been causing canopy decline. The higher susceptibility of beech compared to oak or maple can be explained by the differences in the rooting depth of the tree species: beech has only a shallow rooting system and is the first to run out of water.

But what about recovery? Severe symptoms of canopy defoliation were also present in the following year, in spring 2019, and thereafter. It was found that hydraulic conductivity had not been restored in symptomatic branches and that the amount of intact conducting tissue (or xylem area), directly relates with the foliage area of a branch. Drought is causing partial and irreversible loss of hydraulic conductivity, and without a fully developed canopy, the risk for tree mortality is increasing. He concluded his talk with an appeal to reason that, given the unceasing trend towards a new, warmer climate, we better study the acclimation and adaptation potential to future climate, rather than trying to understand a tree’s recovery potential to a past climate.

How to choose climate-adapted tree species and compositions for future mixed forest stands

The webinar continued with a presentation by Heidi Döbbeler, forest scientist at the Northwest German Forest Research Station (NW-FVA), working in the department of Forest Growth on the development of a decision support tool for hessian forest owners. The project “Maps for climate risk and forest development types as an improved consulting foundation for new challenges for Hessian forest owners” is part of the integrated climate protection plan and funded in collaboration with the state-owned forest and the German Forest Owners Association by the ministry of Hesse in Germany.

In Hesse, a temperature rise from 15.4 to 17.3 °C is expected, which will increase evapotranspiration but also extend the growing season. Accompanied by a decrease in precipitation during summer, this will have a negative impact on the climatic water balance and, thus, on the water available for plants during the growing season. In addition to these regional climatic data, information on soil property is a prerequisite for calculating the site-specific water balance, which is an important indicator of drought stress for trees under future climatic conditions at a given forest site in Hesse.

In a next step, tree species and their potential role in the future were categorized according to their tolerance to drought stress depending on the site water balance. The categories were defined as leading, mixed, accompanying, or excluded tree species. As an example, even if European beech will have problems in Hesse in the future and its distribution will be limited as a result, it will still remain part of the forest. Recommendations for forest development types (FDT) for mixed forests were compiled by intersecting ecograms of leading and mixed tree species. As an example, the oak-beech/hornbeam FDT consists of 80-60 % oak, 20-10 % beech, and 10% accompanying other tree species. 32 FDTs have been defined and include information on management practices, their socio-economic potential and closeness to nature. Every forest owner in Hesse is provided with site-specific recommendations and can freely access the information via a web portal or mobile application. Under the assumption that disturbances have a species or structure-specific effect, facing them by mixed, site-adapted, and structurally rich forests will reduce the susceptibility of forests and instead increase stability and resilience.

Potential of thinning to increase drought tolerance

Following was a presentation by Julia Schwarz, working at the Swiss Federal Research Institute as a researcher for silviculture and climate change and expert in the field of ecology and management of forest ecosystems. She provided insights into whether thinning can offer an adaptation strategy to drought. While long-term adaptation approaches aim at creating structurally and species-rich mixed forests in the future, short- to medium-term adaptation approaches must work with the existing forest stand and thinning might be a way of adaptation to drought stress.

Thinning reduces the amount of trees per area and thereby promotes the growth and vitality of the remaining trees by reducing the competition for natural resources, such as light, water, and nutrients. Thinning regimes may vary in intensity, frequency, by the age of the trees and the type applied (e.g. crown thinning). The short-term impacts at the stand level have been found to range from positive effects on the water balance due to fewer trees and less leaf area, lower evapotranspiration and higher soil moisture to negative effects due to an increased understory growth, increasing solar radiation and higher soil evaporation. At tree level, trees have more space, increased fine root growth with no change in transpiration or increasing transpiration. In medium terms, trees have been found to increase their crowns, their overall root system, the water extraction capacity and their growth rates. At stand level this means that evapotranspiration is reduced after thinning only for a short period of time before it returns to pre-thinning levels.

But can the advantages of thinned stands outweigh the disadvantages of un-thinned stands during drought? What are the effects on tree growth during and after drought? Clear answer: thinning can mitigate drought-induced growth decline and mortality due to higher soil water availability and water extraction capacity during moderate droughts, while trees in denser stands experience drought earlier and more extreme. But during an extreme event where soil water is depleted thinning will have no effect. Thinning effects are highly dependent on drought severity. She concluded her presentation with the recommendation for regular, moderate thinnings that will contribute to mitigating growth decline and mortality during moderate droughts.

Pine and mistletoe– insights from Poland and Switzerland

Concluding the presentations were Andreas Rigling, Professor of Forest Growth at ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Research Institute, with his presentation “The impact of mistletoe on Scots pine performance in a dryer future” together with Wojciech Kędziora, assistant professor at the Institute of Forest Sciences at Warsaw University of Life Sciences and his presentation “Problem with mistletoe in Poland.”

Mistletoes are hemiparasitic plants, well known for using the host’s water supply for their own photosynthetic capacity. When growing on a thriving host plant, they can get as old as 30 years. In central Europe Scots pine is a known host tree. In the host tree, the infection causes a reduced growth rate of branches, and with increasing infection numbers, branch diameter, and length, but also needle length and age, have been found to be negatively affected until even crown architecture and assimilation capacity are affected.

But what if a tree’s water balance is put under additional pressure by drought stress? While trees are able to reduce their water loss by closure of their stomata during a drought event, the mistletoes continue to transpire, thereby increasing the tree’s drought stress. With increasing infection numbers, differences in growth are exacerbated, causing defoliation, growth decline and a reduction in carbon assimilation up to 80%, and finally, increasing significantly the risk of tree mortality in combination with drought stress.

On the positive side, mistletoes not only indirectly contribute to reshaping forests in structure and tree species composition in the long term but also directly improve soil nutrient availability due to their nutrient-rich litter.

In Poland, mistletoe has only recently gained higher attention, and only after 2015-18 has it been perceived as a major problem. To assess the extent of the forests, ground-based monitoring programs were started, but were soon found to be greatly underestimating the actual infection numbers on trees. Most of the mistletoes are growing in the middle of the tree, which is not visible from the ground. The observation has been that mistletoes prefer older stands, stands with lower soil fertility, taller trees with sparse crowns, and more likely to appear at forest edges. There is great hope in the use of drones for inventory programs, but really, only a few management options are available. While pruning, thinning, or clear-cutting promise only limited success, long-term strategies will rely on rebuilding the forests with more diverse tree species compositions. Wider discussions between forest owners, forest industry, management, and public society, as well as cross-border communication, are needed.

Cross-border communication and sharing of experiences is going to be the core business of a future FoRISK. This webinar gave an outlook on a future FoRISK in action that promotes cross-border exchange and cooperation. Here, you can find all the presentations shared during the webinar.

The recording of the event can be found here:

The post Drought adaptation of Forests in Europe – Practical Strategies first appeared on FOREST EUROPE.

At the event, ministers and heads of observer organizations will discuss Sustainable Forest Management, resilience, and youth involvement. The focus is on sharing national experiences, addressing challenges, and shaping the future vision of FOREST EUROPE through key thematic sessions.

The event will conclude with the signing of the Bonn Ministerial Documents, reaffirming the commitment of FOREST EUROPE’s signatories and observers to promoting collective actions to “shape our future with resilient forests” through SFM policies and practices.

The post 9th FOREST EUROPE Ministerial Conference first appeared on FOREST EUROPE.

During the meeting, the focal points were the presentation of a report on Novel Green Forest Jobs and the formulation of policy recommendations to promote Green Forest Jobs to policymakers. Experts further discussed important topics like new and innovative roles of jobs in the forestry sector and attractive and engaging ways to communicate these stories to the world. They also talked about how to represent their work effectively at the upcoming IUFRO World Congress in Stockholm.

The second day of the meeting was all about finding better ways to measure the work and jobs in the forestry sector. Participants shared ideas and experiences to improve our understanding of employment in forestry. The meeting ended with a field trip to the nearby Arnsberg forest, where the experts learned about managing forests in the face of climate change and how to deal with forests that have been affected by disturbances like storms or fires.

Photo: Wald und Holz NRW

“We want to thank ‘Wald und Holz NRW’ for their warm welcome and excellent organization,” said Vera Steinberg, workstream leader of Green Jobs and Forest Education and policy advisor at FOREST EUROPE. “Their support made this meeting possible and helped us take important steps to attract the workforce of tomorrow, thus ensuring the sustainable management of our forests.”

The Expert Group Meeting on Green Forest Jobs shows what can be achieved when people work together. By sharing knowledge and ideas, we can build a future where forests thrive, providing benefits for both nature and people.

For further information, please contact:

The post Expert Group Meeting “Green Forest Jobs” paves the way for a sustainable forest sector first appeared on FOREST EUROPE.

Several decades ago, FOREST EUROPE developed a set of Criteria and Indicators (C&I) for SFM, that was improved and revised over the years. Those are publicly available, and countries use it as a very important tool for national and European forest policy, and for the development of their National Forest Inventories. Based on the information obtained by these C&I, the State of Europe’s Forests report is regularly published every five years.  

The existing pan-European indicators (available here) need to be further developed to adequately address the new and complex demands on forests due to threats triggered by climate change, habitat change, and species loss (Prins et al., 2023). The FE indicators revision process aims to be in coherence with the main political goals and instruments such as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Aichi-Targets, Global Forest Goals, EU forest biodiversity-related strategies, etc. 

You can discover more reading:  

• the policy brief European Forest Biodiversity Indicators at a Glance also suggests a possible way forward.
• the full report Potential for revision of FOREST EUROPE indicators under criterion 4 to obtain a full picture, discussing each FE biodiversity indicator and recommendations for the future to optimize FE indicators.  

Reference  

 Prins, K.; Köhl, M.; Linser, S. (2023): Is the concept of sustainable forest management still fit for purpose? EnvSciPol, forthcoming 

The post Improving biodiversity monitoring in sustainable forest management first appeared on FOREST EUROPE.

Relevant topics we will cover in this second webinar on the topic of drought stress are:

• Look at the extreme drought event in 2018 in Central-Europe and its devastating impact on beech forests and discuss about recovery from drought stress.
• Secondly, introduce a decision support tool used in Germany for providing forest owners with science-based choices for future mixed forest stands.
• Look at the positive effects thinnings have on drought tolerance of forests, minimizing vulnerability to drought of existing forests in the short term.
• Talk about pine and mistletoe, the latest scientific insights on the parasitic relationship, and measures taken by forest management in Switzerland and Poland.

This webinar is open to everyone interested and is part of the FOREST EUROPE’s “From the roots to the canopy” series, this time organized in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow, and Landscape Research (WSL).

See the agenda here.

Register here and participate!

The post Drought adaptation of forests in Europe – Practical strategies first appeared on FOREST EUROPE.

The webinar started with the introduction of the Novel Green Forest Jobs topic, by Ilaria Doimo from ETIFOR. 

She presented a survey carried out by Forest Europe, which focused on identifying the opportunities and challenges in Green Forest Jobs through feedback from different organizations and understanding the future development of Novel Green Forest Jobs. One of the key messages was that the number of jobs in traditional forestry has been decreasing over the past decade while new forestry (novel) jobs are emerging. This trend could be attributed to the development of bioeconomy, mechanization, digitalization, consulting, education, and cultural changes. 

The survey highlighted interesting trends and will be further developed to provide accurate information on the Novel Green Forest Jobs. It will be published in the spring of 2024 by Forest Europe.

The next speaker was Ewa Hermanowicz, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Communications Manager for Europe.

With a background in languages and international relations, she developed her own career, starting at FAO and then working for Bioversity International, followed by making movies on gender equality in India and working with National Geographic to showcase the magnificence of  Icelandic forests. Currently, she is preparing a movie on the wood chain from Congo, describing the challenges of the increasing wood demand and the need to combat deforestation.

Sharing her inspiring career, she highlighted that any kind of talent one has can be used in forestry; one only needs to know what they like, pursue it, and it will work out great!

The next panelist, Silvia Melegari, developed her career path in another branch of the forestry sector, specifically in the wood industry.

Having a background in law, she “accidentally” found herself in the wood industry. One of the decisive factors was her relocation to Brussels, where the main policy negotiations were happening. During her career, she worked with a Wood-based Panel Foundation, and now she is working with the EU organization of Sawmill and Wood Processing Industry and CEI-Bois. The main goal is to advocate for the family business in the EU parliament, work with other lobbying organizations, evaluate the changes that new legislation will bring to the industry, and advise their members accordingly. This is quite a challenging but exciting job, as the parliament is frequently changing, and they have to make sure that new politicians have the importance of the forest industry in mind.

Silvia provided a great example that forest jobs also require an understanding of human relations, and they support businesses in the wood industry.

The next speaker was Lioba Rath, who holds the position at State Forest Enterprise in Switzerland. She shared her experience of working in that part of the forestry sector, which is often called the “most conservative” one, and showed that even there, you can find innovative jobs as the sector is transforming. Same as the previous speakers, she ended up in the forestry sector accidentally, but this time in the digital support for the Enterprise. This includes her in all stages of work, starting from small tasks such as training on how to use measurement tools to high-level strategies such as planning the transportation of wood. 

She has been working just for one year but finds a lot of joy in the work she does. Lioba concluded her presentation with the call that there is a place for everyone, and the field needs it!

The last speaker was the current IFSA President – Isabelle Claire. She shared her path of education and development as a successful story of how the IFSA experience contributes well to the formal education received at the university. A striking example is her recently received position in CIFOR, where her forestry background and soft skills developed in IFSA are extremely useful. 

In addition to this, Isabelle used the opportunity to share youth perspectives on the current state of the forestry sector. It is visible that the sector is aging, and youth are less involved because of the low profitability and lack of training; thus, capacity building is needed. Some of the IFSA’s major projects in that area include the “TreE-Learning” platform and “Gender Open Letter.” 

Isabelle ended her presentation by pointing out that we need to invest in youth and women for the stability of forests and society!

For those who missed the webinar, you can watch the recording on the FOREST EUROPE YouTube channel here.

If you are interested in learning more about the forestry sector, Forest Europe is organizing another webinar on the 14th of March on the topic: “The roots of innovation – setting the course for innovation and sustainable growth in the forest sector.” For more information and registration please follow the link here.

The post IFSA reports on the FOREST EUROPE webinar “Shaping tomorrow’s workforce: Novel Green Forest Jobs” first appeared on FOREST EUROPE.

On November 9, government representatives and practitioners from all over Europe came together in Berlin for the second FOREST EUROPE High-Level Talks to address one question: How can sustainable forest management help make Europe’s forests more resilient to the consequences of climate change?

For those who don’t know, FOREST EUROPE is a pan-European forest policy process at the ministerial level in which guidelines, criteria, and indicators of sustainable forest management are developed. And we had the opportunity to be the youth representatives.

What have we seen? What are the bullet points we, the Youth, take from this day full of panel discussions? This is our perspective on the topic of „growing healthier forests“ and the efforts the government representatives make in their countries.

The high-level meeting focused on the consequences of the climate crisis in European forests. In his welcoming speech, the Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture, Cem Özdemir, called for knowledge and forces to be pooled in Europe in order to make greater use of them for our forests, which are severely affected by the climate crisis:

“Our forests are important comrades-in-arms in the fight against the climate crisis and its consequences. Our forests do not end at national borders. Protecting our forests and adapting them to the climate crisis is, therefore, a pan-European challenge. We can only overcome it together.”

As we should know, it is not easy to develop a Europe-wide forest policy. Forests in Europe are very diverse in terms of their tree species composition, climatic conditions and the extent of changes caused by climate change, and social relationships to forests are also very diverse.

Accordingly, Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) does not necessarily equal resilient forest management everywhere, as stated by the professor of ecosystem dynamics and forest management at the Technical University of Munich, Rupert Seidl. It needs deliberate considerations and time frames to enhance a process of resilience. The director of the Icelandic Forest Service, Þröstur Eysteinsson, hits the nail on the head: “there is no „one fits all“-solution.”

So why is it still important to talk to each other? In times of fast-changing environmental and climatic conditions, nobody knows how to act for the best. The rule „local is best“ loses its validity, and we need forest experts to be more open-minded to interlinked knowledge from everywhere in the world.

Since the climatic conditions are changing faster than ever, different problems occur, but in many cases other nations have faced these problems already. With collaboration and constructive scientific dialogue, we can profit from problems other nations have faced and work together. One good core concern is, therefore, to build and establish a European platform to pool expertise and research findings on protecting forests from the climate crisis. The planned “Forest Risk Facility” (FoRISK Facility) is intended to be a permanent facility for partners and initiatives to receive assistance for preventing risks, coping with risks, and adapting forests. Shared knowledge is the best knowledge.

The HLPD was very professionally organized. As the youth representatives, we did not have much delegation experience beforehand, so it was a pleasure to get the opportunity here. The Moderator, Jo O’Hara, did a fantastic job and led in an emotional and empathic way through the day.  The content of the panelists was substantial and eloquent, which is important for the broader FOREST EUROPE process.

On the second day, we did an excursion in the Grunewald, which was beautiful in the autumn-shaped colorful forest around Berlin. It was also a great opportunity to get to know each other better and to dive deeper into certain topics in smaller groups.

What we missed a bit during the conversations is a bigger emphasis on how important it is to gather ideas for increasing the acceptance of SFM by society. Social acceptance and participatory processes in forestry activities are the root of every forest strategy that is overseen most of the time. In recent times, when many forests look devastated, it is more important to legitimize the expertise of foresters and to make it visible to everyone that foresters act scientifically and to the best of their knowledge and belief.

A lot of this issue relies on our own acts: Foresters need to be more open-minded to other interest groups and sectors in society. Regarding international collaboration, we need to set the same prerequisites for all signatory states and implement an effective and fruitful exchange. Then, we can set a good example of an efficient and action-oriented policy that gets adapted within the FOREST EUROPE process.

Check here the interviews with the Secretary General of the Confederation of European Forest Owners (CEPF), Fanny-Pomme Langue, and the Communications Manager of the International Union of Forest-Research Organizations (IUFRO), José Bolaños.

The post IFSA reports on the High-Level Policy Dialogue: Forests do not end at national borders – how can united knowledge help Europe’s forests? first appeared on FOREST EUROPE.

The forest sector is known to have a very low representation of females employed (below 20 %). This gender gap is also seen in the traditional forest sector workforce. Coupled with the challenge of an aging workforce, the forest sector urgently needs to find ways of attracting more people, including women, to engage in forest-related activities. Innovative forest-based Green Jobs are a way of alleviating potential labor shortages. Providing a more gender-balanced workplace, improving occupational health and safety at work, making working time more flexible, and offering fair wages will immensely contribute to improving the image of the forest sector and attract women and youth.

Through this webinar, we would like to highlight the Novel Green Forest Jobs based on the findings of the activities of FOREST EUROPE’s Workstream on Green Jobs and Forest Education and, while doing so, also showcase the transition from the traditional forestry profession to the novel green forest jobs-women perspective and the gaps in the curricular.

Objectives of the webinar

• Build up on the previous webinar on “How the heck did I end up here?” from the FOREST EUROPE series “From the Roots to the Canopy”. (More information: www.foresteurope.org)
• Present the results from the survey on Novel Green Forest Jobs and the workshop on Novel Green Forest Jobs to be held at the WS3 Expert Group Meeting (EGM) in October 2023.
• Highlight the transition and the potential of Green Forest Jobs by showcasing success stories of female professionals who pursued the traditional forestry programmes but transitioned to different fields of Green Forest jobs, the reasons behind that, and the challenges and opportunities that are there for women.
• Highlight opportunities and gaps regarding Novel Green Forest Jobs in the forest-related curriculum.

[1] Green Forest jobs, as defined by FOREST EUROPE, refer to “Jobs that provide forest-related goods and services while meeting the requirements of sustainable forest management and decent work.

Find here the Webinar programme, and speaker bios.

Date: 12^th December 2023, 2:00 PM CET

Time: 90 minutes

Target group: Students from a forest-related programmes, universities, Expert Group “Green Jobs,” industry, interested public, FE interested observer organisations.

Moderator: Vera Steinberg (FOREST EUROPE)

The post Shaping tomorrow’s workforce: Novel Green Forest Jobs (NGFJ) and the transition from tradition first appeared on FOREST EUROPE.

Join us for conversations with forestry experts from different pan-European regions as we explore the challenges, solutions, and the way forward to preserve our forests for generations to come. Our speakers will address key issues, including the important role of FOREST EUROPE, how Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) can ensure the multi-functions of our forests, strategies to protect our forests from pests, and the critical role of biodiversity when it comes to managing our forests. Hear their voices, share their passion, and be inspired by their stories.

Discover the benefits of impactful forest policymaking and sustainable practices from different countries in the pan-European region. Listen to our four episodes here!

The post Join our brand-new podcast: Seeing the forest for the trees first appeared on FOREST EUROPE.