Marko Lovrić from the European Forest Institute presented insights in to the New EU Forest Strategy for 2030 during the FOREXT-network’s monthly webinar in November.
His presentation is available here and the recording can be found below.
The FOREXT Network gathered, once again virtually, in the 6h Annual meeting on 9 November 2021. On the agenda were items such as work plan 2022, widening the network and more. The participants agreed that despite the restrictions brought on by the pandemic, the network has been successful in coming up with new activities, such as the FOREXT Friday webinars. We all very much hope to be able to meet in person in Norway in March 2022!
Our warmest thanks to Paul Catanzaro from University of Massachusetts for taking the time and sharing his insights of The Keystone Project, which selects and educates forest owners and community leaders who have a significant impact on their communities. The program offers these important, Keystone people information about forest ecology, sustainable forest management, wildlife habitat enhancement, and land protection through a combination of lectures, field trips, discussions and take home resources.
On the September issue of FOREXT Friday Milan Sarvaš, Director of the National Forest Centre – Institute for Forest Consulting and Education Zvolen, talked about support systems for private forest owners (new CAP-Rural development program 2023 -2027).
After the summer break, FOREXT Fridays started with the presentation by Petra Palátová from the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences , Czech University of Life Sciences Prague. She shared the overall aim and recent results from a project FEM4FOREST, Forests in Women’s Hands, with a focus on the findings they have for the Czech Republic.
Watch the recording on Youtube:
In our May FOREXT Friday we heard the presentations of Gail Atkinson (Forest Research, UK) on the topic of Demonstrating climate change adaptation in woodland in South East England and of Tom Houlihan (Teagasc) on the development of an Irish Forest Carbon Tool.
One of the ways in which Forest Research is educating the community about how we can adjust the woodland management practices to better prepare our woodlands for the changing climate is the Alice Holt Forest climate change adaptation trail, which opened in 2019. The trail shows a range of climate change adaptation measures and options. Read more about the trail.
The Forest Carbon Tool takes user-defined descriptive information on the forest and combines it with existing growth models to estimate potential carbon storage over the lifetime of the forest.
Here are the links shared during the webinar:
Climate Change Adaption Demonstrator
Forest Research Climate Change Factsheets
Forest Carbon Tool
Watch the recording of the webinar on Youtube:
Photo: ©jurgal / AdobeStock
The April FOREXT Friday focused on Estonian forestry. Allar Luik from Erametsakeskus gave an overview of Estonian forestry and then talked about the important role which forest owners associations have in managing Estonian forests. Out of the the about 100 000 forest owners, approx. 15 000 are members in the forest owners associations. The benefits they get include one-on-one meetings with advisory specialists, subsidies for reforestation and forest inventories. Watch the recording here:
Note that towards the end of the webinar, we had a technical issue as our speaker lost his internet connection, so the recording shows a short pause.
Photo: ©Ilja / AdobeStock.com
In the March edition of FOREXT Friday, we heard from two experts at the Finnish Forest Centre.
The forests in Finland are not only economically important but also their recreational use is exceptionally wide. During the corona crisis, the Finns have deepened their relationship with nature and forests in particular.
As more than 600,000 Finns are forest owners, that is one out of ten Finns, the role of the Finnish Forest Centre in supporting them and other actors in the field means they need to develop their services all the time. In the webinar, Anna Rakemaa introduced the work FFC is doing in digital monitoring of forest use and Jyrki Haataja talked about Finland’s forest strategies, both national and regional. The webinar was facilited by Anssi Niskanen.
Watch the recording here:
Download Anna Rakemaa’s presentation
Download Jyrki Haataja’s presentation
Photo: Wille Heikkinen, Adobe Stock
In February 2021, the FOREXT Friday looked the national carbon codes in France, the United Kingdom and Spain. The webinar was facilitated by Benjamin Chapelet (CNPF) with a short presentation of the network by Mark Prior, Forestry Commission. Our speakers were: Olivier Gleizes (CNPF) on the “Label Bas-Carbone”, the French national framework for voluntary carbon mitigation in forest with private funds; Pat Snowdon (Scottish Forestry) on “Woodland Carbon Code”, the UK framework for voluntary carbon mitigation in forest and Marta Hernández de la Cruz (Spanish Office for Climate Change) on “Registro de la Huella de Carbono”, the Spanish framework for voluntary carbon mitigation in forest.
Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/AnmZAgzTuV4
In our first FOREXT Friday, we were happy to welcome Steven Meyen from Teagasc who talked about adapting extension activities in the context of COVID-19. We also heard from Ian Baker from SmallWoods, who shared about the changes their work faced as the pandemic hit. Nuala Ní Fhlatharta from Teagasc and Mark Prior from Forestry Commission facilitated the discussion. The full recording of the webinar is available here.
Nuala Ní Fhlatharta pointed out that COVID-19 has made extension services reconsider how they operate and how they can most effectively deliver their services. Many of the forest and land owners depend on accessing a range of support services, both on a one-to-one basis and in groups, to progress their plans for their forests and manage them appropriately. While the digital leap has brought innovation and new forms of services, we still need to be conscious that the profile of some of the clients may mean that they have limited capacity to upskill in relation to digital communications and we must avoid alienating them.
Steven Meyen and Ian Baker both emphasised that even with the current limitations, we can reach out and connect with a multitude of digital tools. Effective communication, along with developing new ideas, requires resources, skills and the flexibility to be able to respond rapidly to the changing demands of the clients as well as the tools.
For Teagasc and SmallWoods, the pandemic has increased the demand for their newsletters and visits on social media channels as well as on their websites. While webinars and online meetings have to an extent substituted in-person seminars, one-to-one consultations and site visits, not all services translate into online content. For example, many of the SmallWoods courses deal with crafts, which require tools that the participants would not have access to in their homes.
Despite being able to successfully take the digital leap, Meyen and Baker believe that the online tools will not entirely replace the live site visits or the in-person peer-to-peer learning, which are crucial part of the work extension services do.
The full recording of the webinar is available on Youtube:
Note the video has been timestamped so in case you are interested in a particular section, be sure to check the description field on YouTube.
Download Steven Meyen’s presentation.
More info about Teagasc Forestry Development Department https://www.teagasc.ie/forestry/ or on Twitter @teagascforestry
Download Ian Baker’s presentation.
More info about SmallWoods: https://www.smallwoods.org.uk/ or on Twitter @lovesmallwoods
One of the member benefits are FOREXT Fridays, a series of webinars where our members share their experiences and learn from each other. If you work with one of our member organisations and would like to participate, email Minna Korhonen at firstname.lastname@efi.int
29 January 2021 at 1 pm CET
On our first FOREXT Friday, we are happy to welcome Steven Meyen from Teagasc, who will be talking about adapting extension activities in the context of COVID 19. We will also hear from Ian Baker, who works with smallwoods.org.uk. Nuala Ní Fhlatharta from Teagasc and Mark Prior from Forestry Commission are facilitating the discussion.
26 February 2021 at 1 pm CET
In February, we will focus on voluntary carbon schemes.
Discussion facilitated by Benjamin Chapelet from National Forest Ownership Centre (CNPF), France.
Olivier Gleizes, CNPF, presents Label bas-carbone, the French national framework for voluntary carbon mitigation in forest with private funds.