Fir, pine, maple and oak have a high tolerance to heat and drought. Nevertheless, there is currently an increased occurrence of a number of pests and pathogens on these "tree species of the future". In the "CLIFF" project, knowledge about these organisms is to be expanded.
The BML commissioned a consortium with the participation of the Austrian Research Center of Forests (BFW) with the project "FORSITE II - Development of the ecological basis for a dynamic forest typing in Upper Austria, Lower Austria and Burgenland".
In this policy brief we propose measures to maintain the forest carbon sink strength and provide information for the time horizons for achieving the targets
Measures for the conservation of native tree species of the Ethiopian Highlands: Linking genetic conservation to re-establishment of species diverse forests.
Climate change is undeniably contributing to the increase in weather- and climate-related natural disasters, affecting Alpine communities. Natural disasters are often the result of compound events, which are combinations of multiple climate- and/or weather-related hazards that contribute to societal or environmental risks.
A better monitoring of Europe’s forest will help countries mitigate and adapt to climate change.
Natural forest reserves (NFR) have gained political and social importance due to current challenges related to climate change and the biodiversity crisis. The aim of the NatWALD project is to expand the existing network by setting up 15 new NFRs (approx. 500 ha) with a contract period of 20 years.
Forest fires have so far been a marginal topic in Austria, but in the future an increase in such events is expected. A group of researchers is currently investigating how the behaviour of fires in forests can be better assessed.
Forestry is very much practice-oriented, so the digital paths in education are not yet very developed. The project 2ForT wants to change this circumstance.
The first Inter-Alpine Natural Hazards Conference (INAC) took place in Innsbruck from May 5 to 7, 2025. Over 100 experts from Austria, Germany, France, Italy, Norway and Switzerland participated in the event. They came from the fields of science, industry, infrastructure and technology.
Global warming is forcing forest owners to adapt their forests to future climatic conditions. In the course of forest conversion, the future of the forest is to be secured with new tree species or combinations. But climate fitness is not the only goal: forests should be profitable, have a high level of biodiversity and also act as a greenhouse gas sink. How to reconcile all this is the focus of the two-year ACRP research project ManageBeech.
The national forest biodiversity index is an aggregate of suitable indicators based on the criteria reliability, validity and objectivity. The outcomes show a relatively high score for Austrian.
Science and practice from across Europe are joining forces under the leadership of the European Forest Institute to ensure the long-term development of biodiversity and ecosystem services of our forests. The Austrian Research Centre for Forests (BFW) is contributing its expertise in silviculture, genetics and conservation in regeneration and afforestation measures to this effort.
Ethiopia has embarked on one of the globally most ambitious programs of forest landscape restoration (FLR) with a commitment to restore more than 20 million hectare of degraded forest landscapes within the next 20 years
Robinia, Douglas fir and red oak were introduced to Europe several hundred years ago and are among the 530 tree species that are non-native to Europe. The international ALPTREES project has developed a risk assessment system for this purpose and published manuals on the management of non-native tree species in forests and urban areas.
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