On the 18 September 2024, the SUPERB project organised a Network of Networks Meeting in Bonn, Germany. The meeting, and the workshop conducted within, focused on connecting networks from different corners of the forest sector to each other and enabling learning from each other.
Professor Georg Winkel from the Wageningen University gave a keynote integrative forest management, which aims to integrate multiple objectives of forest management to address its current needs and find future pathways. The keynote highlighted the trends of economic, societal and environmental change, and noted on the importance of acknowledging regional differences without forgetting stakeholder engagement in the process.
The following moderated discussions asked the participants, including Ms Alina Lehikoinen, CEPF Junior Policy Officer, to step in each other’s shoes and think about the challenges that others face in their part of the forest sector. In addition to forest owners, the discussions were centred around policy, science, nature conservation, media and society. For the forest owners, the participants viewed the most important short-term goal and challenge to be the economic feasibility of forest management. In contrast, they considered the long-term challenges to be quite different including the impact of climate change, creating new income streams and measuring success of various simultaneous goals.
The last rounds guided the participants in discussion to find ways to bridge the gaps and work together with different groups of stakeholders. The conversations aimed to find future collaboration opportunities and stakeholder engagement pathways, and get a clearer vision of why it is actually important.
CEPF thanks the organisers for the fruitful workshop and looks forward to the continuation of the cooperation.
Picture credit: SUPERB project
