New staff member: Dr. Hans-Walter Roering

Dr. Roering is an academically certified forester and forestry assessor. Since May 1, 1992, he has been a member of the scientific staff of the Federal Research Centre for Forestry and Forest Products (BFH) (since 2008 the Thünen Institute), where he worked as deputy head of the Information and Documentation Centre, and subsequently the Scientific Information Centre.

He completed his two-year practical training at the State Forest Service of Schleswig-Holstein. There he gained his first experience recording outdoor data for the National Forest Inventory, as well as experience in forest management and forest site mapping. Later, from 1996 to 2003, Roering served as a scientist staff member in the Institute for Economics of the BFH. During this time he earned a doctorate with his thesis “Forestry in Central and Eastern Europe in the Process of Transition – an Institutional Economics Approach to Explain the Dominant Role of the State Within the Forestry Sector.” From 2015 until December 31, 2018 Roering was the head of the Scientific Information division of the Centre of Information Management.

In the future Roering will focus on the reconciliation of interests between private forest owners and the greater society. To date, there has been a lack of continuous socio-economic data to this topic. His priority will be on the possible permanency of such surveys. This approach is intended to provide basic information for evidence-based policy advice.