Research
Education, advanced training and consulting are not the Centre for Forest Ecosystem's only activities. One of the core competencies is applied research and development taking a local or international focus.Our aim is to find practicable answers to current problems therefore research is both interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary. We cross classical disciplinary boundaries and combine approaches and methods from different disciplines (interdisciplinary) with the latest scientific results and trends as well as with practical know-how.
Transdisciplinary scientific approaches are based on interdisciplinary ones and conclude all parties involved. As an object of research they are kept up-to-date and are able to act differently during the process.
The disciplinary borders in the field of Forest Ecology, Forestry and Timber Utilization are not constitutional. They have been institutionally set and intensified
during the last two centuries. Nonetheless these borders between scientific disciplines are not fixed, they can be shifted or even overcome. Sometimes is even
obligatory to eliminate these borders because today's regional and global problems of sustainable forestry are no longer in accordance with the traditional separation
between scientific disciplines of universities and research centres.
With its interdisciplinary principles in research, the Centre for Forest Ecosystems intents to organize and coordinate knowledge transfer between different scientific disciplines holistically. For many current issues, the combination of natural, social and economic sciences is particularly important in the woods and forests cluster.
In the Centre for Forest Ecosystems transdisciplinary research is practiced in the fields listed below. Besides, we do basic research as for example an examination of the carbon content of forest ecosystems in Chile (see picture) which is one of our cooperative projects with the University of Chile.
Our current fields of research:
- Woods and timber: analysis and assessment of the forest an d wood-based industry (cluster-analysis, cluster-management, labor-market-surveys)
- Woods and climate: forestry after the kyoto-protocol (clean development mechanism, joint implementation, emission trading); carbon content of forest ecosystems; afforestations as carbon sinks
- Forests and energy: dendromass as an energy source; analization of wood potentials, mobilisation of wood reserves; sustainable production of dendromass in short rotation coppices on agricultural land (plantation and management)
- Woods and the public: sustainable, multifunctional forestry (criteria and indicators, problems and opportunities), SWOT-analysis for private and municipal woodland-owners, forest-based tourism, environmental education
- Woods and environmental protection: impairment of nature and landscape; environmental compensation in woodlands, wood preservations policy, wood reserves and their management
- Woods and development: International Cooperation in wood preservation and in forest and wood-based industry, rehabilitation of degraded forest ecosystems in the tropics and subtropics
We would like to excuse the inconvenience further information is only available in the German version. If you would like to know more about our work, please do not hesitate to contact Susanne Bergmann. She will be able to answer your questions in English.