News & Events
Integrate project presents its results at the German Forest Dialogue Forum Berlin
On 1st of July 2015 at the “Walddialog Forum” (Forest Dialogue Forum) in Berlin, Frank Krumm from European Forest Institute’s Regional Office EFICENT presented on behalf of the project team the main outcomes of the INTEGRATE project and its follow-up INTEGRATE+ . The German Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) invited around 150 stakeholders from the forest sector in Germany to exchange on the topic of conservation in German forests within a set of subsequent events aiming to facilitate a rather emotional discussion on segregation and integration.
The first presentation given by Peter Meyer from the Northwest German Forest Research Institute, Germany, set the frame for the discussion on set aside areas in Germany. Retrospectively, the main arguments from different stakeholders were emphasised again based on facts and figures in the following presentations.
Andreas Bolte from the Thünen Institute gave an overview on the results of the German national forest inventory and initiated a discussion on the interpretation of inventory results and on the consequences for the forest sector.
The following statements and arguments were based on interventions from lobby-group representatives and resulted in a rather polarising discussion lacking the effort towards constructive exchange to find a common baseline.
The second day was dominated to main parts by maintaining certain “clichés” leaving many attendees at a loss on the discussion status between nature conservation and forestry. As a side step, the key findings of the INTEGRATE project and aims of INTEGRATE+ were presented. The projects have a holistic approach collating scientific and practical knowledge throughout Europe ensuring a transparent unbiased perspective. The presentation was well received. After the session Frank Krumm was asked by numerous participants for the English publication being one of the main project outputs. Also orders were already made for the forthcoming translated German version (translation will also be available in French), which was made possible with the support of administrations from Germany, France and Switzerland.
The concluding discussion expressed once more the importance for a fact based discussion and that the European Forest Institute can provide such a platform as an independent international institution. The combination of policy support based on scientific results was seen as adequate and constructive as is the supply of unbiased research findings for the use in practical forest management. The BMEL was pleased by the input that the INTEGRATE projects could give to the topic while staying unbiased and basing its input on scientific knowledge and experiences from throughout Europe. This was reflected also by the positive feedback from the audience.
Photo by FNR
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