Promoting reforestation of protective forests in Tyrol, Austria

Key Learnings

• Enhancing resilience: Sustainable forest management, including reforestation and creating resilient mountain forests, is becoming increasingly important under a changing climate with more extreme weather events. This approach goes beyond planting trees; it involves avoiding large-scale clear-cutting and allowing nature to build resilience. Key aspects include actively rejuvenating the forest with mixed site-specific trees and structured forest maintenance. Those are some of the key elements to ensure the right forest microclimate and nurture the conditions for the conversion into stable mixed forests.
• Supporting framework conditions: Beside a sustainable forest management approach the required framework conditions must be in place, such as reducing game and providing tools to choose the right mixed tree species.
• Raising awareness and collaboration: Specialist training, advisory campaigns, and management concepts for forest owners as well as users contribute to raising awareness. Regional and local stakeholders must work together, considering the various geographical and socio-economic factors to achieve the best possible adaptation outcome.
• Economic opportunities: Sustainable forest management concepts, such as Climate-Smart Mountain Forestry pose new opportunities for local economic development.

Summary

Protective Forests play an important role in protecting settlements and socio-economic activities in Tyrol’s alpine valleys. Tyrolean forestry has relied on spruce for its economic viability and rapid growth. However, climate change is putting the protective forest, including the spruce under pressure. A sustainable management approach forms the basis for developing a “Climate-Smart Mountain Forest” in the Tyrolean municipality Wildermieming and the regional project "Climate-Smart Tyrolean Mountain Forest" is an important contribution to the resilience of the Tyrolean protection forest. This management model not only contributes to achieving climate-resilient forests and protecting communities but also supports new regional cooperation models.

Contact

Organisation: Klimabündnis Tirol, Invest4Nature

E-Mail: sigrid [dot] mourits-andersenklimabuendnis [dot] at (sigrid[dot]mourits-andersen[at]klimabuendnis[dot]at)

Klimafitter Bergwald Tirol

Name: DI K. Ziegner

Organisation: Tyrolean Regional Government Forest Division, Invest4Nature contributor

E-Mail: kurt [dot] ziegnertirol [dot] gv [dot] at