Press release: Forestry scientists from Göttingen “minders” of China’s forests

Nr. 25/2012 - 28.02.2012

International research project to develop utilisation concepts with 1.35 million Euros in funding

(pug) Forestry scientists at Göttingen University are looking at new, long-term concepts for the utilisation and management of forests in China. Within the last 30 years, up to 50 million hectares of forest have been planted there. This equates to about a quarter of all global afforestation during this period. Yet the condition of many of these forests is not optimal because appropriate silvicultural concepts are lacking. Alongside the Faculty of Forest Sciences and Forest Ecology at Göttingen University, the University of Freiburg, the Technical University Dresden and Chinese partner organisations are involved in the project. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research is supporting the project for three years with a total of 2.75 million Euros in funding. Around 1.35 million Euros will go towards research conducted at Göttingen University.

Many Chinese plantation forests have reached an age that calls for silvicultural strategies for the future to guarantee the “services” provided by the ecosystem, e.g. carbon sequestration, soil protection and water protection. In addition, damage from natural disasters, which have been quite devastating in some areas, has shown that many forests are unstable: For instance, in January 2008, blizzards and ice breakage destroyed 18 million hectares of forest within a mere couple of days, leading to economic damage amounting to approximately 1.6 billion Euros.

“We want to improve the structure and stability of young and middle-aged plantation forests,” explains the head of the project at Göttingen University, Professor Christoph Kleinn, Department of Forest Inventory and Remote Sensing. “For this purpose, we have to develop concepts for the sustainable management of forests and organise land use more efficiently, whilst simultaneously examining the associated risks”. The Göttingen scientists are focussing their research on the Chinese province Anhui, partner province of the state of Lower Saxony. The project “Innovative technologies and services in sustainable and multifunctional land use systems in China (Lin2Value)” launches in March 2012.

Contact:
Prof. Christoph Kleinn
Georg-August University of Göttingen
Faculty of Forest Sciences and Forest Ecology
Burckhardt Institute
Chair of Forest Inventory and Remote Sensing
Büsgenweg 5, 37077 Göttingen
Phone (0551) 39-3473, Fax (0551) 39-9787
Email: ckleinn@gwdg.de
Internet: www.uni-goettingen.de/de/67094.html