The virtual conference organized in the framework of the Swizz Chairmanship of the Integrate Network from 9-10 November 2020, will both serve as a platform to launch the book “How to balance forestry and biodiversity conservation? A view across Europe” and a related policy brief as well as presenting different approaches to integrated forest management. The aim is to showcase and discuss the sustainability of the forest sector by balancing biodiversity conservation and wood production in European forests. The event is jointly organised by the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), the European Forest Institute (EFI), and the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) in the framework of Germany's Presidency of the Council of the European Union (July through December 2020).
Various project initiatives over the past years have dealt with the topic of integrative forest management. The question on how to improve the situation for endangered species in multifunctional managed forests (see e.g. INTEGRATE, INTEGRATE+, INFORMAR and oFOREST) is key and these initiatives have thus provided a good overview of the state of biodiversity in European forests. This topic is well established now both at the political level and across Europe, but is also taken up in other parts of the world, mainly in regions which are meeting resource demands of other countries that are/plan to set aside large forest areas. It is thus essential that existing knowledge, experiences and good practices on integrative forest management are made available to all actors in forestry and nature conservation at the implementation level in order to promote biodiversity within the framework of multifunctional forest management. This should not only include information provision but also allow for field visits and training opportunities. In 2020 the publication ”How to balance forestry and biodiversity? – A view across Europe” will be launched. It includes a large number of case study examples on integrative forest management approaches.
