Population growth, climate change, loss of biodiversity, a growing global economy: the world will change drastically by 2050. Right in the middle of it all: forests.
This year's IUFRO World Congress in Stockholm will therefore focus on the contribution of forests to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN 2030 Agenda. Under the motto "Forests and Society Towards 2050", the latest research findings and innovations as well as applied science will be presented.
The international conference from 23 to 29 June in the Swedish capital aims to promote global cooperation across sectors. Scientists from the Thünen Institutes of Forest Ecosystems, Forestry, Forest Genetics and Wood Research will also be present.
Knowledge exchange and future technologies
The congress week will open on 23 June with a festive ceremony at which trees will be planted and the Swedish King Carl XI Gustaf will give a welcoming address. Outdoor and indoor events in the form of excursions, workshops, more than 200 sessions and 4,500 presentations on the following five main topics will then fill the programme of the Stockholm Week of Forests:
• Forests for sustainable societies
• Strengthening forest resilience and adaptation to stress
• Towards a responsible forest bioeconomy
• Forest biodiversity and its ecosystem services
• Forests for the future
Future technologies that could revolutionise the forestry sector will be presented. For example, AI, which can be used in a variety of ways.
Thünen Forest Institutes represented on a wide range of topics
Thünen scientists present research projects on the main topics of the IUFRO and thus contribute to the international discourse.
The Thünen Institute of Forestry is extensively represented on the topic “Towards a responsible forest bioeconomy” with numerous sessions, lectures, poster presentations and participation in panel discussions.
The sessions will focus, for example, on the opportunities and effects of sustainability change in the forest sector, effects and effectiveness of forest policy in tropical developing tropical statehoods or the question of how poverty reduction and forest integrity can be reconciled in tropical dry forests. Lecture topics are e.g. the influence of silvicultural scenarios on potential forest use, carbon storage and biodiversity in tropical forest landscapes or advancing quantitative statistics in governance research using case study examples from tropical forest policy.
Poster presentations revolve around such as a new forest governance approach for Germany to cope with global change or the question of how substitution effects in the bioeconomy can be defined and measured. There will be a panel discussion on the challenges and opportunities of work and employment in the forestry sector and another session on how to attract the workforce of tomorrow.
On the topic of “Forest biodiversity and its ecosystem services”, scientists from the Thünen Institute of Forest Ecosystems will, for example, present the federal-state initiative NaBioWald and present a poster on acoustic biodiversity monitoring at the Level II test area in Britz. Another session will focus on nitrogen deposition in a changing climate: trends and impacts on forest ecosystem services.
Scientists from the Thünen Institute of Forest Genetics are participating with posters and presentations on "Resilience of forests and adaptation to stress". The topics: Genetic analyses of stressed European beeches, tree species distribution in climate change and genomic variants of European beech trees.
On the topic of “Forests of the Future”, scientists from the Thünen Institute of Wood Research will give a lecture on current research work in the field of automated wood species identification of fibre materials and present the application of the apps macroHOLZdata and CITESwoodID. Further lecture and poster content revolves around greenhouse gas substitution effects in the building sector or efficient use of waste wood in a circular bioeconomy.
About Iufro
The International Union of Forest Research Organisations (IUFRO) is a global network of long-term research plots demonstrating sustainable forest management and adaptation to climate change. It is one of the world's oldest international scientific organisations with the aim of promoting cooperation in the field of forest sciences. The Thünen Institute is a long-standing member of IUFRO. The organisation was founded in Eberswalde in 1892. It unites more than 15,000 scientists from more than 630 partner organisations from more than 220 countries. Collaboration under the umbrella of IUFRO takes place on a voluntary basis. Every five years, the IUFRO World Congress brings together stakeholders from the forest sector to discuss current and future issues.
More about the programme of the congress week
