motive-project news last news from motive-project.net http://www.motive-project.net Sat, 24 Oct 2026 01:55:31 +0200 WebDesign LTD. FeedCreator MOTIVE booklet provides insight into climate change challenges in European forests http://www.motive-project.net/news.php?n=233 09 September 2013

Climate change is posing a major challenge to forestry across Europe. Recent research indicates that climate change will most likely exceed a 2 °C rise in mean global temperature by 2100 and without drastic policy change mean temperature may rise between 3 and 6 °C in Europe. These changing environmental conditions affect tree growth and productivity of forests. Moreover, natural disturbance regimes are changing with significant implications on forest dynamics. Past experiences regarding the local and site-specific suitability of species are no longer valid and this calls for an adaptation of present forest management strategies. Preparing for and adapting to the impacts of climate change in European forests is a major challenge as complex scientific knowledge needs to be communicated not only to the scientific community but importantly also to practitioners and decision makers at the local to regional level. The newly published book “Adapting to climate change in European forests – results of the MOTIVE project” summarizes results of a large European research project for a general audience. A considerable part of the work of MOTIVE focused on regional case studies, which were implemented in a participatory process with local stakeholders. The book presents these case studies together with a series of articles that address important aspects of climate change impacts and adaptive forest management. Topics include information on climate change projections for Europe with emphasis on implicat...]]> Mon, 09 Sep 2013 10:00:00 +0200 MOTIVE outcomes in the latest EFI News http://www.motive-project.net/news.php?n=232 19 July 2013

The latest issue of EFI News features a set of articles on how forest adapt to climate change. Read about outcomes of the lately finished MOTIVE Project in articles on -- Habitats of tree species shift as climate changes -- Adaptive management options for forest owners -- Mapping the risk to European forests -- Forest management – case in the Mediterranean region You can download the latest issue of EFI News from the link below.]]> Fri, 19 Jul 2013 10:00:00 +0200 A tour of EU-commissioned research on ecosystem services http://www.motive-project.net/news.php?n=231 16 July 2013

by biofreshblog

In the second part of her quest video post, Dr Paula Harrison takes us on a brief tour of the landscape of EU-commissioned biodiversity and ecosystem research.

Watch the video here: http://biofreshblog.com/2013/07/15/a-tour-of-eu-commissioned-research-on-ecosystem-services/]]> Tue, 16 Jul 2013 10:00:00 +0200 MOTIVE featured at a ThinkForest event \"Climate Change in European Forests: How to ... http://www.motive-project.net/news.php?n=230 29 April 2013

ThinkForest addressed the question of climate change and adaptive forest management in its most recent event in the European Parliament on April 25, as the European Commission is preparing to launch its new Climate Change Adaptation Strategy. The programme featured presentations by many scientists in MOTIVE, including Marcus Lindner, EFI, Marc Hanewinkel, WSL and Manfred Lexer, BOKU. They introduced the scientific background to the day\'s topic by presenting how climate change will affect forests in Europe, by looking at the options for adaptive forest management in European forests and by discussing how to provide decision support to practitioners and policy makers. Also MOTIVE case studies were featured as Xavier Buqueras presented convincing evidence of climate change effects in Catalonia and Hasse Bengtsson shared the practitioner’s view and the effects climate change will bring to the region of Kronoberg, Sweden. The science-policy discussion underlined the importance of forests in the EU adaptation strategy. As forests are very sensitive to climate change, climate change will increase the risk of forest disturbances. At the same time the societal demands on the provisioning of different forest products and services are increasing. Finding the balance between these two makes adaptation to climate change especially challenging for the forest sector. Raising awareness about climate change among the 16 million forest owners in Europe is crucial, as understa...]]> Mon, 29 Apr 2013 10:00:00 +0200 New EFI Policy Brief looks at the challenges of adaptive forest management http://www.motive-project.net/news.php?n=229 25 April 2013

Accounting for climate change in forest management is a challenge for many forest managers, owners and decision makers around Europe. In order to make timely decisions, they need solid information on e.g. climate change projections and uncertainties, forest health, pests and diseases, tools for running different forest management scenarios as well as information on successful adaptation measures in their regions. The new EFI Policy Brief “Climate Change in European Forests: How to Adapt” describes proactive and reactive management styles and illustrates how they have been used in different regions of Europe. The case study areas are selected from those of a FP7 funded research project MOTIVE (Models for Adaptive Forest Management). The policy brief is published today in the context of a ThinkForest event in the European Parliament in Brussels. Further information on the event can be found on the ThinkForest website, www.thinkforest.efi.int EFI Policy Brief 9. Climate Change in European Forests: How to Adapt by Joanne Fitzgerald, Jette Bredahl Jacobsen, Kristina Blennow, Bo Jellesmark Thorsen and Marcus Lindner is available at http://www.efi.int/portal/virtual_library/publications/policy_briefs/9/ ]]> Thu, 25 Apr 2013 10:00:00 +0200 Best Practices – Adaptation of European Forests to Climate Change http://www.motive-project.net/news.php?n=228 20 March 2013

During a recent conference, the MOTIVE-project (Models for Adaptive Forest Management) co-organised a workshop focusing on the applicability of key forest management adaptation measures in space and time. The workshop aimed to raise the awareness of the necessity to combine practitioner\'s perspective and expertise with scientific research. After presentations by scientists and practitioners, a group discussion addressed the factors that support or impede adaptation in forest management. A list of these factors was compiled for further use. The participants agreed that networking is important in supporting adaptation to climate change. Seeing how climate change affects our forests is crucial in realising the fact that forests are facing unstable environmental conditions. Sharing knowledge about the anticipated changes and what others do about them is a crucial first step to consider one’s own options for adaptation. The uncertainties in the climate projections as well as in the scientific model outputs are a challenge for communication. It is dangerous to neglect uncertainties, but it is also very difficult to communicate them. ECCA – the European Climate Change Adaptation Conference, organised in March 2013, brought together 700 scientists and practitioners working on adaptation to the impacts of climate change. The conference created a European forum bringing together world-class science, with the aim of fostering a creative dialogu...]]> Wed, 20 Mar 2013 11:00:00 +0200 Adaptation to Climate Change in Canadian Forests http://www.motive-project.net/news.php?n=227 28 January 2013

Over the past few years the provinces, territories, and federal government have been working collaboratively through the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers (CCFM) Climate Change Task Force on developing approaches and information to assist members of the forest sector in planning for and undertaking actions to adapt to a changing climate. The first documents in a series of new reports that will be released over the next few months are now available to be downloaded from the CCFM web site at http://www.ccfm.org/english/coreproducts-cc.asp . These documents provide (1) a general introduction to climate change adaptation in the forest sector; (2) guidelines for assessing an organization’s readiness to undertake vulnerability assessments and adaptation planning; and (3) a framework outlining how vulnerability assessments and adaptation planning can be carried out. A more detailed guidebook for vulnerability assessment, and several supporting technical reports, will be released in the next few months and will be posted at the same location. ]]> Mon, 28 Jan 2013 11:00:00 +0200 Climate Change: Believing and Seeing Implies Adapting http://www.motive-project.net/news.php?n=226 23 November 2012

To communicate climate change and adaptation to stakeholders such as European forest owners is a challenge. A capacity to adapt to climate change has, until now, mainly been understood as how trees and forest ecosystems can adapt to climate change and which socio-economic factors determine the implementation of adaptive measures. The new study lead by Kristina Blennow from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), shows, for the first time, the importance of two personal factors; when forest owners believe in and see the effects of climate change, they are more likely to have taken adaptive measures. These two personal factors almost completely explain and predict forest owners´ adaptation to climate change. Knowing what triggers humans to respond to climate change is crucial in communicating climate change policies. Because climate is defined in terms of average weather, climate change has been claimed to have low salience as a risk issue because it cannot be directly experienced. An international team of scientists from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Lund University (Sweden), the Technical University of Lisbon (Portugal), the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL and the University of Freiburg (Germany) present, based on survey data from 845 private forest owners operating across Europe, that a substantial proportion of the respondents strongly believe that they have directly perceived climate change. Furthermore, the researchers present the first evide...]]> Fri, 23 Nov 2012 11:00:00 +0200 Climate change – the future is now: Communicating the need for adaptive management to stakeholders http://www.motive-project.net/news.php?n=225 19 November 2012

One of the challenges that scientists and stakeholders share is how to communicate climate change issues. The fact that the effects of climate change can already be seen in European forests is not always getting through to forest managers and decision makers. This was one of the topics discussed in a recent meeting where scientists, decision makers and stakeholders shared their ideas and experiences on adaptive management strategies. The FP7 project “Models for Adaptive forest Management” (MOTIVE) investigates adaptive management strategies that address climate and land use change. One of the project’s successful ways of reaching out to the stakeholders has been an advisory board that has brought together decision makers, stakeholders and scientists. “This interaction has been an extremely useful exercise for the scientific research of MOTIVE and helpful to get a better insight into the knowledge and research requirements of forest decision makers and practitioners”, says the project co-ordinator Prof. Dr. Marc Hanewinkel from the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL. During the group’s final meeting in November, the stakeholders raised the issues of difficulty in communicating climate change issues to the relevant people. The message that the effects of climate change can already be seen in European forests is not getting through to forest managers and decision makers. Clear examples of observed climate change effects from scientists would be very useful in communicating this message. The...]]> Mon, 19 Nov 2012 11:00:00 +0200 Severe economic loss for European forest land expected by 2100 http://www.motive-project.net/news.php?n=224 27 September 2012

By 2100 climate change is expected to reduce the economic value of forest land by 14 to 50%, which equates to a potential damage of several hundred billion euros unless effective countermeasures are taken. This is the conclusion of the first pan-European study on the economic effects of climate change on forest land. “The study shows us a dramatic impact on European forests when there is no timely curbing of climate change, or when forest management does not adapt to a climate change in time. It is now urgent to investigate adaptation options, and to build awareness concerning climate change impacts, and adaptation amongst forest managers and the forest sector”, says Gert-Jan Nabuurs from EFI, a member of the international team of scientists led by Marc Hanewinkel from the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL carrying out the study. The study analysed three out of the 40 IPCC climate change scenarios. The results indicate that climate change is expected to strongly affect tree species distribution within European forests. By 2100, when Norway spruce might have disappeared in many regions, between 21 and 60% (34% on average) of European forest land will be suitable only for a Mediterranean oak forest type with low economic returns for the timber industry. These slow growing forests will also sequester less carbon than today's forests. By 2100 – depending on interest rate and climate scenario applied – the calculated loss varies between 14 and 50% (28% on average) of the current value of forest l...]]> Thu, 27 Sep 2012 10:00:00 +0200 Messages to policy-makers from conservation scientists gathered in Glasgow http://www.motive-project.net/news.php?n=223 09 September 2012

ECCB expresses concerns about the on-going intensification and homogenization of agricultural landscapes across Europe and beyond. It calls for a robust and effective plan for sustainable land use that meets current and growing needs at both national and regional levels within Europe whilst safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystem function. Old growth forests are unique ecosystems that play a fundamental role in the provision of ecosystem goods and services and yet less than 2% remain throughout Europe. ECCB calls for the strict protection of the remaining tracts of old-growth forest (including the ecological processes that maintain them) together with other wilderness areas in the European periphery. It also advocates for the ecological restoration of potential wilderness landscapes.]]> Sun, 09 Sep 2012 10:00:00 +0200 Article alert: Climate change adaptive capacity of the Canadian forest sector http://www.motive-project.net/news.php?n=222 31 August 2012

Johnston, M. and Hesseln, H., 2012. Climate change adaptive capacity of the Canadian forest sector. Forest Policy and Economics, in press. Abstract Canada's forests will be affected by climate change to a greater degree than many other regions. The ability of the Canadian forest sector to successfully adapt to climate change, i.e. its adaptive capacity, was assessed through a series of group discussions and interviews with a variety of forestry stakeholders across Canada. The assessment was oriented to the following determinants of adaptive capacity: 1) The range of available technological options for adaptation that would be considered in response to a perceived climate-related stress 2) The availability of resources 3) The structure and functionality of critical institutions to understand the allocation of decision‐making authority, institutional flexibility, and the decision criteria that would be employed; 4) Human and social capital, including the distribution of educational achievement, differential access to personal security and robust property rights 5) The system's (and individuals’) access to risk-spreading processes (both formal and informal) 6) Decision-makers’ ability to manage information, the processes by which these decision-makers determine which information is credible, and the credibility of the decision-makers themselves. Forest managers were generally optimistic about their ability to identify and implement adaptation options at the forest management ...]]> Fri, 31 Aug 2012 10:00:00 +0200 Optimizing forest management under uncertain growth and economic conditions http://www.motive-project.net/news.php?n=220 23 August 2012

Forest management instructions often include recommendations for rotation lengths, thinning years and thinning intensities. However, under uncertain growth and economic conditions, these may not be optimal. Forest management should produce rules that allow forest landowners to adapt their management to changing situations. In their recent study, Pukkala and Kellomäki show how this can be done when both tree growth and timber price are stochastic. In their article, Pukkala and Kellomäki call optimization that produces fixed cutting years, cutting basal areas or cutting diameters ‘anticipatory optimization’. Optimization that produces rules on how to react to the actual state of nature is called ‘adaptive optimization’. Both optimization approaches lead to the same management strategy when growth and all other factors are deterministic. Differences appear when growth or price is stochastic. The calculations were carried out for a mixed stand of Scots pine, Norway spruce and birch under the conditions of the northern boreal case study area in the project “MOdels for AdapTIVE forest Management” (MOTIVE). Results show that increase in tree growth rate under climate change does not strongly affect the optimal management if timber price is fixed. However, if timber prices vary, it is usually beneficial to delay clear-felling whether or not there is a climate-induced trend in tree growth. It is also beneficial to distribute the incomes more evenly among different cutting events when risk and ...]]> Thu, 23 Aug 2012 10:00:00 +0200 Have Swedish forests recovered from the storm Gudrun? http://www.motive-project.net/news.php?n=221 23 August 2012

In January 2005, the storm Gudrun hit Sweden. It has been estimated to have caused an overall economic damage of 2.4 billion euros in Swedish forestry alone. But has there been more damage to the forest than was clearly visible? A recently published study by Seidl and Blennow shows that Gudrun caused not only immediate damage corresponding to 110% of the average annual harvest in Sweden from only 16% of the country’s forest area but also pervasive effects in terms of growth reduction. In recent decades, the frequency and severity of natural disturbances by e.g., strong winds and insect outbreaks has increased considerably in many forest ecosystems around the world. Future climate change is expected to further intensify disturbance regimes, which makes addressing disturbances in ecosystem management a top priority. As a prerequisite a broader understanding of disturbance impacts and ecosystem responses is needed. With regard to the effects of strong winds – the most detrimental disturbance agent in central and northern Europe – monitoring and management has focused on structural damage, i.e., tree mortality from uprooting and stem breakage. Effects on the functioning of trees surviving the storm (e.g., their productivity and allocation) have been rarely accounted for to date. Seidl and Blennow show that growth reduction following the storm was significant and pervasive in a 6.79 million hectare forest landscape. Wind-related growth reduction in Norway spruce forests surviving the storm exceeded ...]]> Thu, 23 Aug 2012 10:00:00 +0200 Job alert: Post-Doctoral Position (INRA - Unité EPHYSE, Bourlaux, France) http://www.motive-project.net/news.php?n=219 01 August 2012

Wind Damage to Forests in a Changing Climate: Impacts and Mitigation

This position will be responsible for integrating a range of data (ground-based and remote sensed), computer based tools and new measurements of flow over complex forests in order to develop methods for assessing the impact of different management strategies. Models of forest growth, soil hydrology, wind damage vulnerability, and airflow will be utilized. Particular use will be made of GIS in order to provide a spatial representation of the forest and to integrate models and data in order to allow calculation of the productivity of the forest and the risks of wind damage now and in the future.

Deadline for application: 31st October 2012.

For further information please see the attached pdf file below.]]> Wed, 01 Aug 2012 10:00:00 +0200 Conference on Forest Management, Local Development and Protection of Surface and Groundwater http://www.motive-project.net/news.php?n=218 13 July 2012

The SEMEAU conference: How to combine Forest Management, Local Development and Protection of Surface and Groundwater? will be organised on 17-19 October 2012 in Vulcania, Clermont-Ferrand, France. The SEMEAU conference is an international meeting devoted to the following themes, and at presenting the main outputs of the LIFE+ SEMEAU project: - hydrological and hydrogeological relationships between forest and surface and groundwater - technical tools (numerical models, DST) - best practices - local to European (WFD), and other countries, scale strategies, policies, amenities and ecological services The conference is aiming at gathering together: - professionals and stakeholders involved in water, forest and environment management and protection - scientists, engineers, consultants, elected representatives, local, state, national, European and international authorities - from France, Europe and other countries. The registration to the conference is open until 10 September 2012. For further information, please visit: http://www.life-semeau.eu/accueil ]]> Fri, 13 Jul 2012 10:00:00 +0200 MOTIVE at the Conference: Tackling climate change - the contribution of forest scientific knowledge http://www.motive-project.net/news.php?n=217 08 June 2012

MOTIVE, together with several international R&D projects, organised a conference in May 2012 looking at the current state of knowledge on climate change impacts on forest ecosystems, services and activities. Over 300 participants from 40 different countries attended the conference, which was held in Tours, France. The scientific presentations at the conference gave a very comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge regarding climate change impacts, risks and uncertainties, disturbance impacts, and management for adaptation or mitigation, to name a few of the session topics. The following MOTIVE presentations were given in the scientific parallel sessions at the conference: • Integrating parameter uncertainty of process-based forest models in assessments of global change impacts on forest productivity. Christopher Reyer - Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research - Germany • Addressing climate change scenarios in eucalypt forest management. A landscape level optimization study case. Jordi Garcia-Gonzalo – University of Lisbon - Portugal • Simulated forest productivity and biomass changes under global change. Christopher Reyer - Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research - Germany • Forest productivity shifts under climate change in Europe: a model-based analysis. Petra Lasch - Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research - Germany • Impact of climate on growth and mortality of trees in the Black Forest. Heinrich Spiecker - Institute for Fo...]]> Fri, 08 Jun 2012 10:00:00 +0200 Tackling climate change: the contribution of forest scientific knowlegde http://www.motive-project.net/news.php?n=212 23 May 2012

An international conference looking at how forests can help tackle climate change is taking place in Tours, France on 21-24 May 2012. The conference allows participants to take stock of the scientific knowledge about present and expected impacts of climate change on forestry. It also discusses the adaptation and mitigation measures that could be taken, and the trade-offs between adaptation, mitigation and sustainable forest management. The opening session of the scientific conference was held on 21 May. One of the keynote addresses in this session was made by Dr. Gert-Jan Nabuurs, Assistant Director of the European Forest Institute who gave an overview of new perspectives on the role of European forests in carbon sequestration. He pointed out that “views are changing on the climate mitigation potential of European forests. From a large interest and hype after Kyoto, it is now changing more to regarding the full value chain.” He also explained that “optimal combinations with local circumstances and adaptation options, local environmental services, and a small to moderate contribution to the green economy, are the ways forward.” The conference focuses mainly on Europe, with some benchmarking regarding other continents such as North America and Oceania. Scientists and stakeholders will attend 18 sessions, including over 100 oral and poster presentations. There are also three parallel field trips in the surroundings of Tours. The conference is jointly organised by the European research proje...]]> Wed, 23 May 2012 10:00:00 +0200 MOTIVE: New features developed for adaptive forest management models http://www.motive-project.net/news.php?n=211 20 March 2012

Climate change is already affecting European forests today. Growth rates have increased in northern latitudes, while some tree species have declined on dry sites close to their southern distribution limits. Climate projections show the trend in temperature increase and a changing distribution of summer and winter precipitation with an expected increase in winter and a decrease in summer precipitation, but with outstanding regional differences. The MOTIVE project (MOdels for AdapTIVE forest management), which started in 2009, has recently published its 2nd periodic report. Halfway through the project duration, MOTIVE has produced a number of results documenting the impacts of climate change on Europe’s forests. Amongst these results, a consistent set of high-resolution climate scenarios has been developed based on a multitude of Regional Circulation models – a so called ‘ensemble’ of climate change projections. A hybrid species distribution model including realistic tree migration has been developed and applied to the climate change scenario ensemble. This model illustrates that only early successional (pioneer) tree species, for example birch, may reach migration rates which are sufficiently large (ca. 1 km per year) to track recent rapid climate change. Late successional species, for example European beech or oaks, reveal very low migration rates which are totally insufficient to track ongoing and accelerated climate change. For these tree species, therefore, major biome shifts under rapid...]]> Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:00:00 +0200 Responding to Climate Change in National Forests: A Guidebook for Developing Adaptation Options http://www.motive-project.net/news.php?n=209 12 March 2012

A recent guidebook published by the by the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station provides documentation of science-based principles, processes, and tools necessary for a credible and practical approach for adapting to climate change. The adaptation process is based on partnerships between local resource managers and scientists who work collaboratively to understand potential climate change effects, identify important resource issues, and develop management options that will help national forests meet their management mandate. Despite uncertainties about the timing and magnitude of climate change effects, sufficient information exists to begin the adaptation process, a form of risk management. The following steps can be used to facilitate adaptation in national forests: (1) become aware of basic climate change science and integrate that understanding with knowledge of local resource conditions and issues, (2) evaluate sensitivity of specific natural resources to climate change, (3) develop and implement strategic and tactical options for adapting resources to climate change, and (4) monitor the effectiveness of adaptation options and adjust management as needed. Results of recent case studies on adaptation in national forests and national parks can facilitate integration of climate change in resource management and planning and make the adaptation process more efficient. Responding to Climate Change in National Forests: A Guidebook for Developing Adaptation Options by Davi...]]> Mon, 12 Mar 2012 11:00:00 +0200