The idea of integrated forest management, which combines economic, ecological and social objectives with regard to sustainability and long-term conservation of forest ecosystems, is already relatively well known. However, for the time being it lacks sufficient operational elements and a wider application at a European level. The Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences has been given the opportunity to participate in the unique TRANSFORMIT project from the beginning of 2024, which demonstrates and improves the effectiveness of integrated forest management to link productive forestry, biodiversity conservation and stimulate international cooperation.
The TRANSFORMIT project will support the wider implementation of integrated forest management by engaging existing and well-functioning networks such as the Integrate Network. In all these activities, our faculty will also be involved and will play an important role among the 16 partner institutions from 11 European countries in the activities of the work package dedicated to Living Labs. There will be seven of these Living Labs within the TRANSFORMIT project, and one of them will be established with the contribution of the FLD in the Czech Republic. The Living Labs will demonstrate the implementation of integrated forest management and its adaptation to local conditions and different ownership structures, together with the reconciliation of conflicting demands on forests. Of course, these will not be laboratories in the form of rooms with microscopes, centrifuges and test tubes, but forests managed in real environments that will be carefully selected to cover a range of different approaches to integrative forest management.
The laboratory sites will be selected based on the success of the application of forest management integrating biodiversity conservation, logging and other ecosystem services. Specifically, the project works with the following criteria:
- Ensuring diversity of cases across biogeographic regions.
- Covering different ownership structures
- Addressing topical issues relevant to the selected regions
- Inclusion of diverse management challenges and risks
- Leveraging established links to forests in sustainable development through existing networks such as Pro Silva, Integrate and the Network for Sustainable Management and Resilience of Planted Forests, etc.
- Availability, willingness and capacity to be proactive with the public
Living Labs will allow for a comprehensive presentation of good practice examples of integrative forest management along different gradients with potential for scaling up. Meeting Living Lab owners and managers with project partners in workshops organized by FLD will allow coordination and discussion of needs and availability of information for knowledge and experience exchange. The Living Labs will also include meetings with representatives of the media, local interest groups, nature conservation, etc. Finally, the Living Labs will become part of the developing Integrate network, which serves as a source of information and contacts for stakeholders and forest enterprises interested in integrated forest management.
For each Living Lab, a profile will be created containing information on species composition, management regimes, inventory procedures, decision support tools used or specific needs, information covering major management issues, etc. The information collected will be synthesized and published on the project website as part of a knowledge hub aimed at promoting integrated forest management. An online co-creation workshop will be organised across all Living Labs with input from selected stakeholders from other integrated forest management networks to identify common challenges in integrated forest management and propose solutions. Three study tours for media stakeholders to three selected TRANSFORMIT Living Labs will also be organised.