About the project

The main goal of the HealthyForestRegions (HFR) Project was the preservation and encouragement of healthy forest ecosystems in Central Europe to secure human well-being - now and in the future.

The key actors to put that objective into practice were policy- and decision-makers in certain forested regions. They are the people who have the opportunity and power to make a change. Thus, they are the once we aimed to offer well-founded explanations and feasible solutions. Therefore, we brought to life a transnational project team with widely spread competences: 2 universities, 2 municipalities, 2 national forest services, 2 nature parks and 1 NGO. In close exchange and cooperation, the project partners worked together on three different topics fields to achieve the project goal:

The first topic field focused on raising awareness and spreading knowledge about the value of regional forests. It also included implementing pilot actions to anchor this value among educational institutions, recreation and tourism organizations, and the local population.

In the second work field, a team of project partners focused on creating alternative income opportunities for local and regional forest owners and managers. These alternatives aimed to reduce the need for intensive timber harvesting, which often compromises forest health. Specifically, forest-based schemes of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) were being analyzed and developed.

The third topic field aimed to enable regional policymakers and decision-makers to assess the health of local forests. It also examined how regional regulations and structures impact forest conditions. Based on these findings, measures to maintain and support forest health were developed into a General Forest Health Strategy and a transferable HFR Concept.

Project partnership

Roadmap

Pilot actions

Outputs

Project videos