17 January 2019

IBFRA

Successful “IBFRA18 - Cool Forests at risk?” conference and appointment of Dr. Florian Kraxner as IBFRA president  

©IIASA

©IIASA

The Cool Forests Conference (IBFRA18) was held from 17-20 September 2018, under the direction of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Schloss Laxenburg, Austria. It was organised as a combined effort between the International Boreal Forest Research Association (IBFRA), the Center for Landscape Resilience & Management (CLR) at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), the International Union of Forest Research Organisations (IUFRO), and the Pan‐Eurasian Experiment (PEEX).


Around 200 representatives from science, politics, business and civil society from around 30 countries participated in the conference.

In addition to exchanging state‐of‐the‐art research on the broad field of boreal and mountain forests (Cool Forests), the conference has been successful in strengthening the dialogue between scientists and stakeholders from politics, business and civil society.

More than 100 scientific lectures and 40 scientific posters brought together the expertise of scientists from around 30 countries. In addition to Austria and its direct neighbouring countries, countries such as Finland, Japan, Canada, Korea, Mexico, Mongolia, Nepal, Russia, Sweden or Spain were also represented.

The central focus of the conference was to identify key challenges and opportunities for the future of Cool Forests. These were addressed in a Science-Stakeholder dialogue to identify possible pathways for politics, industry and civil society in order to preserve and promote the critical values of the Cool Forests for

  • the climate,
  • the bioeconomy and for
  • people and nature

The conference thus aimed at improving the communication of scientific content to key stakeholders in politics, industry and civil society, in order to raise awareness and integrate Cool Forests into high‐level political forums.

Relevant scientific manuscripts are presently accepted in the Cool Forest Special Issue in the forest Journal (MDPI)

For more information on the conference, please download the conference report and visit the IBFRA18 website.

New IBFRA president, Florian Kraxner elected


©IBFRA

During a back-to-back IBFRA Steering Group meeting, Dr. Florian Kraxner CLR Center Head and ESM Deputy Program Director, has been elected as the new  International Boreal Forest Research Association (IBFRA) President and Prof. Raisa Mäkipää from LUKE Finland as the new Vice President.

IBFRA was formed in 1991 to promote and coordinate research to increase the understanding of the role of the boreal forest in the global environment. The objectives of IBFRA are:

  • To contribute to the sustainable development of boreal forests by promoting and coordinating fundamental and applied research and relevant activities relating to forest ecosystems, forest management, forest products and all forms of forest use within the boreal zone;
  • To promote and coordinate research to increase understanding of the role of boreal forest ecosystems in the global environment and the effects of environmental change on that role;
  • To promote the dissemination of research results and transfer of new technology and the adoption of new methods of forest utilization, planning and social organization, with a view to ensuring sustainable development and preservation of boreal forest ecosystems.
  • For more information on IBFRA please visit the website.


Text adapted from IBFRA website




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Last edited: 18 January 2019

CONTACT DETAILS

Florian Kraxner

Research Group Leader and Principal Research Scholar Agriculture, Forestry, and Ecosystem Services Research Group - Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program

Conference Report

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International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria
Phone: (+43 2236) 807 0 Fax:(+43 2236) 71 313