The visit took place in the framework of the bilateral German – Chinese Cooperation Programme for Agrarian Research, a facility which is co-funded by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture. The objective of the visit is mutual scientific information exchange on the topics of forest rehabilitation and forest conversion into close-to-nature-forest stands. The cooperation between YAF and TI-WF is fruitfully continuing since 2003. For this visit the focus was put on pine forest management in Germany.
Excursions to forest enterprises in Saxony, Brandenburg and Berlin demonstrated which challenges exist when forest enterprises change their management towards close-to-nature-forestry. The guests from China were impressed by the convincing examples of forest conversion in Germany and will identify options for the application of these practices to their home province in southwest China.
Furthermore the guests emphasized their interest to deepen the cooperation through a joint research project as it was expressed by the head of the delegation and vice chair of YAF, Mr. Chen, during the final discussion at TI-WF.