GenRes Bridge aims to strengthen conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources (GenRes).

Genetic resources refer to genetic material of plant, animal or microbial origin of actual or potential value, such as a medicinal plant, agricultural crop, tree variety or animal breed.

Biodiversity conservation in European forests requires implementing nature conservation in the productive forest. To a certain degree, the effectivity of such measures is often decided in the the policy-making phase already.

A global study on employment in the forest sector and relating to forestry will provide insight to the future labour market for forestry students. It will utilize the strong networks of all three partners to gather and systematize global knowledge from complementary perspectives. The study will begin with a systematic review of recent changes in employment and education complemented by explorative interviews with experts from science, education and business, a global survey among students and recent graduates, and interviews with employers.

Since 20 years, the European Forum on Urban Forestry (EFUF) is a unique meeting place for practitioners, managers, planners, architects, researchers, professionals, public authorities and policy makers to share interdisciplinary experience and good practices within the field of urban greening, urban forests and urban forestry.

The project is a service contract with the Ministry of Environment, Agriculture, Conservation and Consumer Protection of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia targeting the expansion of the Integrate Tablet software I+ for use in silvicultural training.
The project includes five tasks:

A huge variety of global forest governance initiatives exists today.  All of them follow distinct rationales of how forest governance should operate. These initiatives have, however, not been able to reverse trends of deforestation and forest degradation in the tropics, despite this being the main objective for many of them. Existing instruments like REDD+ and FLEGT are facing major obstacles throughout the design and implementation process.

The EU Biodiversity Strategy 2020 aims to establish green infrastructures and to restore at least 15% of degraded ecosystems until 2020. Forests play a key role to reach these aims. While European policy strongly supports the afforestation of former farmlands, it has to date largely neglected opportunities for passive landscape restoration. Spontaneous forest establishment is occurring in many parts of Europe following the widespread abandonment of agricultural land use.

Integrated forest management approaches are a key strategy to integrate nature conservation objectives into Sustainable Forest Management (SFM).

European forests are affected by different disturbances. They range from pests and insect damages to megafires and transnational storm events and can have profound impacts on forest ecosystem services and livelihoods. As forest disturbance regimes have intensified during the last decades, making forests more resilient has gained in importance. Experiences from both practice and science on how to best cope with risk and respond to disturbance events are crucial for developing and improving response strategies in policymaking and practical management.