Integrate+

It was attended also by Thomas Haußmann from the 'German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture' (BMEL). The exchange is organized in the course of the German - Czech Strategic Dialogue signed by the foreign ministers of both countries. One of the nine working groups addresses 'agriculture and forests'. Integrate+ was the activity selected for cross border collaboration in the course of this dialogue.

The three-day event aimed at presenting and discussing approaches on how to embed nature conservation into managed forests. Ebrach provides a broad range of such management activities which are supported by scientific work. The participants stopped at a strict forest reserve which serves education purposes on natural forest dynamics, as site for observing a wide variety of tree microhabitat structures and as a place for research investigations. The Ebrach stepping stone concept was introduced  by the Head Ulrich Mergner, followed by a visit to one of the oldest experimental plots in the world (140 year thinning experiment). The experimental design has become especially interesting today also in terms of thinning intensities and their effects on the development of tree microhabitat structures.

Main activity during the exchange was the visit to the I+ Marteloscope Steinkreuz. The participants performed virtual selection exercises with the I+ software. The tasks given to the participants were to select 'elite trees' and such trees that display or will develop microhabitat structures important for broad range of often rare and endangered species. The exercises were well received as was the site design, software and the display of results.

Tomas Krejzar noted that he is looking forward to a the return visit by German forest experts to the Czech Republic end of June. "There we will present our three Marteloscopes that we have established in the course of the strategic dialogue." "The exchange visits will be concluded by a high level conference in October 2016 in Prague with the participation of the ministers from both countries", he continues.

Thomas Haußmann noted that the strategic dialogue could serve to some extent as a model to initiate such informal working groups also with other EU countries on a more permanent basis. Mr. Haußmann also expressed that BMEL Minister, Christian Schmidt, ascribes such exchanges great importance. "There is a clear personal interest of the Minister on this matter", Thomas Haußmann continues.   

Newspaper article: http://www.mainpost.de/regional/schweinfurt/Exportschlager;art769,9215065