The management of tree species non-native to European geographical regions has a long tradition within forestry management practice dating back to the 17th century. Today, the question of whether these species could increase the adaptive capacity, biomass production and C sequestration of forests to long-term climate change patterns have fueled a growing interest in non-native tree species in Europe.
In order to determine their full potential and management options, but also to assess associated risks and challenges, the need for a communication platform allowing for discussions with stakeholder groups is argued.
With this aim, the NNEXT Cost Action has established a multidisciplinary and open access network of experts for a state-of-the-art knowledge transfer and in-depth analysis of the associated risk and challenges in growing non-native forest tree species within European forestry sector.
The EFI Planted Forests Facility contributes in a working group about Monitoring, collecting, processing and harmonising existing information on non-native tree species distribution in Europe. The EFI Planted Forests Facility was responsible of providing a list of long term research plots and available data and reports for the most important non-native tree species, which was collected in the FORESTRIALS database. In addition, further synergies with the REINFFORCE project were created with the analysis of the growth and survival results of the tree species arboreta, showing the difference in performance between exotic and native species.
More information at nnext.boku.ac.at