Healthy Forest Regions - 9 partners, 6 countries and 3 years

Following the successful implementation of BEECH POWER, the second Interreg Central Europe project "HealthyForestRegions" was launched on 1 April with HNEE as the lead partner. From 30 May to 2 June, the 9 partner organisations from 6 European countries met in Angermünde, Brandenburg, for the official launch of the project and to coordinate the first steps.

The participating countries include Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Croatia and Germany. This makes the project an excellent example of cross-border co-operation in nature conservation and sustainable development. At the same time, the project is an example of cooperation between local authorities, universities and others at European level. For HNEE project manager Marcus Waldherr, it is the living European idea that can be experienced in this project. 2.78 million euros are available over the project duration of 3 years until 2026.

The aim is to enable decision-makers and relevant stakeholders to ensure the functionality of forest ecosystems. The focus is on protecting biodiversity and providing forest-based ecosystem services for sustainable regional development. For Prof Pierre Ibisch, the learning curve for humanity must now be steep, in contrast to the forest dieback of the 1980s, because "ecosystems make decisions about the well-being of people - and they don't negotiate."

In the project, HNEE is responsible for project coordination, communication and management of work package 3. In total, there are 3 work packages with different focuses: for example, the development of forest-based alternative sources of income (to the timber industry) such as tourism, recreational use and other forest products, education in local schools: creation of an educational trail and teaching materials, mapping of stakeholders and development of structural requirements for forest protection and others.

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