Study tour on climate- and biodiversity-integrated forestry in Hesse

At the end of June, a study tour organized by the state enterprise HessenForst, together with IAK Agrar Consulting GmbH as part of the Agricultural Policy Dialogue Germany – South East Europe (APD SEE) led to the forests of Hesse. 43% of the federal state is covered by forest, which is well above the national average of Germany. More than a third of the forest area is beech – a tree species that is also frequently used in the Western Balkans.

The tour started with a visit to the Hessian Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, Viticulture, Forestry, Hunting and Homeland to discuss the implementation of relevant EU policies in Hessian state policy. In terms of their responsibilities and structures, individual federal states are often more comparable with the partner countries of the Western Balkans than the Federal Republic of Germany as a whole. A representative of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Regional Identity (BMLEH) also explained how EU legislation is transposed into national law and illustrated this using the example of the Forest Monitoring Act and the Nature Restoration Act.

The state enterprise HessenForst presented its comprehensive work on integrating biodiversity, climate change and social needs into forestry and forest planning. To gain a practical impression of the implementation, two forestry offices were visited in detail over the week:

• The Burgwald Forestry Office, as a “Forestry Model Operation Climate Protection Plus”, is all about climate protection. In addition to projects for the renaturation of moors, the resilience of different types of forest is being investigated.
• The Hofbieber forestry office, on the other hand, is dedicated to forest management with a focus on biodiversity. Here, selected habitat trees with forest edges and watercourses form migration corridors for a wide variety of species. Old-growth and deadwood are also preserved to study their effect on the forest ecosystem. Another focus is on systematic water retention in the forest, which goes hand in hand with the preservation and renaturation of wet meadows and ponds.

Research for the future of the forest was also part of the itinerary: the Northwest German Forest Research Institute (NW-FVA) pools the expertise of several federal states. Research is carried out jointly on a wide variety of aspects to subsequently transfer the findings into practice. Among other things, the specially developed decision support system for the selection of tree species under the aspect of advancing climate change, which is available as a user-friendly app, was presented. Research into carbon dynamics in natural forests also provides practical insights. The conservation of genetic resources was demonstrated ex-situ on a practical site. Particularly in the area of forest genetic resources, there is interest in further exchange with institutions in the Western Balkans, where the current climate could be the future in Germany. In addition, the NW-FVA can serve as a model for pooling knowledge in a joint research and advisory center for the forest.