Trip to the forest with German Federal Minister Klöckner

On June 21st 2018, EFI expert Andreas Schuck was invited to join an excursion to the Tegel forest in Berlin to introduce Integrated Forest Management approaches to German Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture Julia Klöckner. Schuck explained the concept of the Marteloscope sites, which he described as “outdoor forest classrooms”. In Marteloscope sites trees are numbered, mapped and measured. Supported by software running on mobile devices, they can be used to train foresters and other interested groups like students, policy makers or the public how different silvicultural measures may affect forest biodiversity and to what extent. Julia Klöckner supported this innovative approach as being in line with attempts of the Ministry BMEL to use more digital tools in the field of forestry.

The excursion into the forest was briefly mentioned in the key German news show “Tagesthemen” (minute 5.10-5.30).

Initiated and facilitated by Andreas Schuck and his EFI colleagues and funded by the BMEL, marteloscope sites have been established all over Europe in recent years. In the framework of the INFORMAR project coordinated by EFI’s Resilience Programme, the learning software is further developed and more and more marteloscope sites are being initiated.