Research projects
Ongoing Projects
Regionalstudie Harz - REHAThe increasingly apparent climate change has led to intensive forest damage in the Harz region. Weather extremes such as winter storms, heatwaves, and dry periods have particularly affected and weakened the spruce stocks, making them vulnerable to biotic damaging organisms, especially the spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus), which has caused damage on a monumental scale. The aim of the project is to provide a basis for decision-making for the development of a larger region, guiding it from an acute crisis to an ecologically and socioeconomically sustainable future. This will be achieved through the integration of forest ecology, forestry, wood technology, tourism, and economic science aspects in a scenario analysis. For more information, klick here.
Persons in charge: Ottens, L.., Paul, C. und Döbbeler, H.
The Test Operations Network for Forestry (TBN Forst) of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture provides important data on the economic situation of forestry operations in Germany. As part of the research project "Further Development of Forestry Business Benchmarking," approaches will be developed to reduce the data collection effort and increase the benefits for the operations. This will involve analyzing the existing data, as well as the accounting systems of the forestry operations, and exploring alternative systems. The goal is to identify action options to secure and further develop this important data source. For more information, klick here.
Persons in charge: Möbius, F., Paul, C. und Dög, M.
This subproject aims to assess the economic returns and associated risks of mixed forests of European beech with Douglas-fir and spruce compared to pure stands of these tree species. The main hypothesis is that mixed forests have higher and more stable economic returns, and the associated risks are lower. For more information click here.
Persons in charge: Klenke, J. and Paul, C.
The EU-funded Small4Good project aims to help small forest owners implement multifunctional management and business models supported by digital and AI driven solutions. The project promotes biodiversity and carbon farming through payment for ecosystem services schemes, engaging these smallholders in active forest management. For more information click here.
Persons in charge: Yunita, S., Paul, C., Schmidt, S. and Scheidgen, K.
This sub-project (WP3) focuses on the effect of tree species and structural diversity on the economic robustness and resilience of forest enterprises. By using bioeconomic simulation models and forestry portfolio optimization models, relationships between stand diversity, market volatilities and the provision of income, wood products and climate services will be better understood. For more information click here.
Persons in charge: Fuchs, J. M. and Paul, C.
The forest-based sector can make a major contribution to climate change mitigation through various ecosystem services, especially carbon storage, but all ecosystems have recently been affected by rapidly changing climatic conditions. In order to take this into account in future silvicultural management concepts, forest operations and wood supply, all actors along the forest wood value chain need to develop a common vision of future forest management. ONEforest will address this challenge by developing a multi-criteria decision support system that enables the different stakeholders in forestry to make long-term strategic decisions according to individual objectives, e.g. ecological, social or economic aspects. For more information click here.
Persons in charge: Ottens, L., v. Groß, V., Husmann, K. and Paul, C.
In the third funding period, the subproject socio-economic valuation will integrate the knowledge gained so far in the SIGNAL collaborative project on ecological relationships and effects of alley cropping agroforestry systems at various locations in Germany into a bio-economic farm model. It is to be discussed under which economic and site-specific but also societal conditions the implementation of agroforestry systems can be beneficial. For more information click here.
Persons in charge: Hollmann, M. and Paul, C.
Within the framework of the ELAN project, cooperation is taking place with six farms in Lower Saxony that are newly establishing an agroforestry system. Through intensive information and data exchange, economic, social and agronomic obstacles to agroforestry are to be identified. On the basis of the economic data, farm model calculations will be carried out to enable farm-specific scenario analyses on potential advantages and obstacles of different farm types. The entire farm structure as well as farm risks and findings on soil-relevant ecosystem services are to be explicitly included in the modelling. For more information click here.
Bearbeiter/innen: Volckens, V. und Paul, C.
The aim is to identify possible economic prospects with the participation of affected forest owners. At the same time, the project aims to develop recommendations for forest policy action to promote these prospects. First of all, the project group examines the current impact of the calamity on private forest ownership in NRW in more detail. In the next step, it estimates the expected expenditure and yield ratios in the course of climate change. Based on the NRW silviculture concept, it will develop economically justified strategic recommendations for action. These should also take into account the various owner objectives and their respective requirements in private forests. In addition, the work will shed light on rationalization potentials as well as alternative income opportunities for private forest enterprises in addition to timber sales.
Bearbeiter: Dr. Markus Dög
Completed Projects
This project focuses on identifying management strategies that ensure the provision of ecosystem services under increasing climate-driven risks and extreme weather events. We first analyze the economic impacts of such events. We then identify adaptation strategies for forest enterprises in the context of future tree species selection. For more information click here.
Persons in charge: Fuchs, J. M. and Paul, C.
The aim of the project is to develop a modelling approach to identify suitable smallholder land use systems that satisfy farmers' needs while providing as many ecological functions as possible. For more information click here.
Persons in charge: v. Groß, V. and Paul, C.
This project is concerned with systematically describing the institutional/legal framework conditions for typical forms of management and organization in small private forests, analyzing the influencing factors empirically and in terms of institutional economics, and investigating the effects on forestry decisions. For more information click here.
Persons in charge: Hoffmann, C., Paul, C., Heinemann, J., Von Arnim, G.
The aim of this project is to analyze the growth patterns in the temperate forests of the Sierra Madre Occidental in order to define a sustainable timber harvest based on the productivity of the site. For more information click here.
Persons in charge: Padilla M., J. R., Paul, C. and Corral R., J. J.
This research project aims to identify the framework conditions under which agroforestry could contribute to reducing land use conflicts. The aim is to investigate the ideal degree of diversification at the field, farm and landscape levels in order to reconcile operational and social objectives. For more information click here.
Person in charge: Gosling, E., Reith, E. and Paul, C.
The aim of this project is to identify and evaluate the potential of Industry 4.0 in the forestry-wood supply chain. For this purpose, methods of classical investment appraisal, finance, utility analysis and risk management as well as institutional economic approaches such as the principal-agent theory are used. For more information click here.
Persons in charge: Hoffmann, C. and Paul, C.
To date, there has been a lack of standardized economic indicators for comparing different forestry work processes. The aim of the research project is to determine planned times and costs for selected working methods as well as calculation schemes for these. The work package “Economic Calculation” of the joint project, which is being carried out at the Department of Forest Economics and Forest Management at the University of Göttingen, aims to develop a basic concept for the economic calculation of different working methods and different planning occasions. The established concept of forestry accounting in accordance with the DFWR's forestry product plan as well as the experience and structures of the KTBL in the area of “agricultural business planning” will be used. The main project result was the “Forestry work database” an online database for calculating forestry measures.
Bearbeiter: Dr. Markus Dög
The WaVerNa project aims to identify existing problems, obstacles and potentials in the implementation of contractual nature conservation in forests and to carry out forest ecological, economic and legal analyses as part of a joint collaboration between the Northwest German Forest Research Institute, the Thünen Institute of International Forestry and Forest Economics, the University of Hamburg and the University of Göttingen. Based on these findings, recommendations for practical action will be developed. Sub-project 3, which is based in the Department of Forest Economics and Forest Management at the University of Göttingen, investigates the economic impact of nature conservation measures on forest enterprises. The identification and evaluation of reduced yields and additional costs, the analysis of additional administrative costs, the consideration of the resulting operational risk and the evaluation of restrictions on operational flexibility are the focal points of the analyses to be carried out in this subproject. The central objective is to determine a lower limit for the level of remuneration for contractual nature conservation services to be provided.
Bearbeiter/innen:
As part of the joint project “Utilization-oriented studies on low-value beech (hardwood) assortments for the production of innovative sustainable wood products and wood-based materials”, the sub-project aims to analyse and quantify not only the direct costs incurred in hardwood production in the area of timber harvesting and silvicultural measures, but also in particular the organizational, administrative and logistics costs and their determining factors in the production and marketing of hardwood from sustainably managed mixed stands. On the basis of process and operational analyses and using the results of the cost and performance accounting of public and private forestry operations and also of timber logistics companies, this sub-project will determine the revenues, costs and contribution margins of alternative production, logistics and utilization concepts for typical (rather low-value) hardwood assortments along the cross-company supply chains from the forest to the plant and quantify their effects on value creation.
Bearbeiter/innen:
As part of the joint project, aspects of data provision for the bundling, contracting, processing and invoicing of timber volumes are to be considered. As stated in the Forest Strategy 2020 of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Consumer Protection (BMELV), a sound data basis is required to ensure market transparency and as a basis for entrepreneurial and political decisions. This is particularly important as evaluations of expert scenarios show that the demand for wood raw materials in Germany is continuing to rise. The introduction of modern data provision procedures is particularly urgent in the management of small private forests, as there are often outdated stand-alone systems with data breaks and gaps.
Bearbeiter/innen:
Ziel des Gesamt Projektes ist es, eine neue Generation modellbasierter Ertragstafeln zu schaffen, welche für Rein- und Mischbestände der wichtigsten Waldentwicklungstypen im nordwest-deutschen Raum einfach zu handhabende und die heutigen Waldbaukonzepte widerspiegelnde Planungshilfen für die Forstbetriebe darstellen sowie Grundlagen für die Waldbewertung liefern und die Abschätzung der nachhaltigen Nutzungsmöglichkeiten ermöglichen. Further information can be found “here”
Bearbeiter/innen:
The innovative approach of the INKA project lies in the bundling of proven methods with more modern methods of information acquisition, operational modeling and data exchange. Easy-to-use web-based process modules are designed to allow effective evaluation of individual stands, on the basis of which silvicultural strategies geared to individual operational goals are proposed to the user. This creates added information value for smaller forestry operations, which was previously reserved for larger forest owners with powerful IT applications. Further information can be found “here”
Bearbeiter: Ferdinand von Plettenberg
The aim of the project is to identify, specify, implement and document various locally suitable forest management measures at an explicitly operational level and to analyze their consequences. The effects of the various silvicultural measures (e.g. timber harvesting, maintenance, planting, hunting) on selected, spatially relevant ESS, the long-term functionality of forests, closeness to nature, structural and species diversity and the economic effects for the managing forest enterprise are to be investigated in the sense of a case study. The long-term goal is to stabilize the forest ecosystem in its function as a commercial forest and at the same time to promote the ESS. Further information can be found “here”
Bearbeiterin: Maike Schluhe