The Manfred Project
It is likely that Alpine forests will be disproportionately negatively impacted by climate change. These impacts will likely be seen in tree growth and health, increased spread and intensity of pests and diseases, and a change in tree species distribution. These may in turn have ripple effects on the multiple forest functions, including, for instance: protection against avalanches, flooding, ground slides and water resource protection. Moreover, impacts on the livelihoods of forest-dependent communities could result in major ecological, economic and social consequences.
The MANFRED project, aimed at defining management strategies to adapt Alpine Space forests to climate change risks, has two main objectives:
- Protection and sustainable long-term management of forest ecosystems,
- Effective forest management by means of knowledge-based adaptive strategies.
The goals will be addressed by collecting and sharing knowledge of climate change impacts on forest ecosystems as, by identifying regional and local action requirements and through the development of adaptive strategies in cooperation with regional decision makers.
The anticipated project results including guides for forest practitioners and local decision-makers in the region will be disseminated in the form of a knowledge platform on pests and diseases, maps, handbooks, guidelines, manuals as well as a database of the potentially expected extreme forest damaging events that may occur in the Alpine Space.
The expected results should aid forest management decisions as local authorities and decision-makers, forest owners and practitioners that will be involved throughout many of the stages of the project's development.
- MANFRED on the spotlight at the 25th Task Force Meeting of the ICP Vegetation - Brescia (Italy), 31st January - 2 February 2012
- "European Forests: Central to the World We Live in" on EuropeanForest´s Channel
- "Climate change & forest fires in the Mediterranean Basin: management and risk reduction" - 24-26 January 2012, Nir Etzion (Israel)
- MANFRED on the spotlight at the 25th Task Force Meeting of the ICP Vegetation - Brescia (Italy), 31st January - 2 February 2012
- "Climate change & forest fires in the Mediterranean Basin: management and risk reduction" - 24-26 January 2012, Nir Etzion (Israel)
- MANFRED roundtable in Slovenia: Management of protection forests in Alpine space - approaches in forestry praxis (Gospodarjenje z varovalnimi gozdovi na obmoÄju Alp – pristopi v gozdarski praksi)
