The ASFORCLIC project – Adaption strategies in forestry under global climate change impact has completed its first 18 months and now moves on to its second period. This milestone allows reflections and future outlook.

ASFORCLIC opens doors for future collaborations via creating strong links between individual researchers and participating institutions. As a result, the Early-stage and young researchers are guided into innovative and up-to-date research approaches and educational tasks. In the past 18 months, we focused on linking institutions, joint discussions, supporting Early-stage and young researchers’ mentoring activities, complementary job shadowing, and preparation of new research avenues. “ASFORCLIC also has had a much broader impact on the internal research culture at the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology at Mendel University in Brno,” says Libor Jankovský, dean of the Faculty.

ASFORCLIC’s Working Groups allow Early-stage researchers and young researchers to discuss their topics with scientists from partner institutions. Working Group Forestry focuses on the influence and interaction of the changing forest environment (climate, precipitation) on the growth and production of trees and single tree compartments, including lesser-used tree species. Working Group Wood Properties & Applications deals with the influence of endogenous (tree physiology, predisposition) or exogenous (site, altitude, climate, heatwaves, water-stress/ drought) factors on the quality and quantity (ring-width, density, mechanical strength) parameters of mature wood. Finally, Working Group Bioeconomy & Policy works on quantifying the impact of forest enterprise and forest management on the economic and social development of the area. “These investigations also include assessing and evaluating the socio-economic benefits for the local people and entrepreneurs by addressing traditional applications like log usage, influence on the environmental quality, or additional forest by-products “, says Vladimír Gryc from the Department of Wood Science and Wood Technology, FFWT MENDELU.

ASFORCLIC in numbers (11. 7. 2022)

10 peer-reviewed publications

25 Woking groups meetings

17 mentor-mentee pairs

4 capacity-building activities

3 new European projects (ERASMUS+, INTERREG AT-CZ, PEI-AGRI)

1 summer school

Participating institutions:

• Mendel University in Brno, CZ
• AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, AT
• Bavarian Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forestry, DE
• Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institute – Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forestry and Fisheries, DE
• Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE
• Technical University of Munich, DE
• University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, AT
• University of Ljubljana, SI

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N°952314.

Contact information: Mendel University in Brno: Pavlína Pancová Šimková +420 602 876 444, e-mail: pavlina.simkova@mendelu.cz