Integrate Network featured at a recent IFM Conference in China
Representatives from the TRANSFORMIT project consortium joined forest scientists from around the world this month in Beijing, at the International Workshop on Integrative Forest Management (IFM) and Biodiversity Conservation, organised by TRANSFORMIT’s Chinese partner project Inteforma.
On the first day of the three-day workshop, TRANSFORMIT project coordinator Bernhard Wolfslehner (European Forest Institute) not only delivered a keynote presentation that introduced the project but also showcased the mission and vision behind the Integrate Network, as current Head of the Integrate Network Secretariat. Alongside this, Georg Winkel (Wageningen University & Research) gave a keynote on the drivers and dimensions of IFM from a global perspective. Colleagues from China shared insights around IFM from the perspectives of national forest policy, genetic resources, remote sensing, long-term forest recovery and more.
As Georg Winkel noted in his keynote speech, “the rationale of IFM is to address the challenges of post-transition forests”. Closing ecological deficits in secondary and managed forests, integrating multiple societal demands, and increasing forest resilience in the face of a changing climate are challenges that both China and Europe face, which is exactly why knowledge exchange and synergy-building are so crucial.
What is TRANSFORMIT project?
Transforming Forest Management for multiple ecosystem services and nature conservation via the Integrative approach (EU Horizon Europe project; ongoing)
The project aims to demonstrate and improve the effectiveness of IFM to combine productive forestry and biodiversity conservation by integrating existing practical and scientific knowledge, and to stipulate collaboration and mutual learning amongst science, policy, and practice in Europe and internationally. As a coordination and support action, TRANSFORMIT will lay the basis for larger scale implementation of IFM through proactive engagement with well-established networks, such as the Integrate Network for which EFI acts as Secretariat.
Photo Credit: Shanqing Gao, EFI
