Scope: Europe’s forests represent a large variety of ecosystems, from Mediterranean evergreen and temperate, deciduous forests through to coniferous boreal forests. Depending on a variety of factors, these forests harbour high levels of biodiversity, generated primarily by variations in climate and topography, but also to large extent through differences in forest management. In Europe, the majority of forests have been managed during past millennia. A large variety of land tenure and governance systems, management styles and forest uses have transformed European forests by changing their extent, structure, species composition and function. Currently, forests and other wooded lands cover almost 40% of the continent, or 227 million hectares (Forest Europe 2020), and host a tremendous variety of organisms. European Forests are crucial for a major part of continental biodiversity.
To protect habitats and species while also meeting its international commitments, the European Union (EU) has been developing the Natura 2000 network of protected areas, based on the 1979 Birds Directive (on the preservation of wild birds) and the 1992 Habitats Directive (on the conservation of natural habitats). The main goal of the Natura 2000 network is to protect the EU’s threatened species and habitats by setting conservation objectives, delineating protected sites and monitoring the conservation status of these sites. The network now includes almost 30,000 protected areas covering 18% of the EU’s land area, of which 48% is forested, and 8% of its marine territory (EEA 2019). According to Natura 2000-reporting, forests exhibit the highest proportion of improving trends among the assessments, with 14% of the forest assessments having a good conservation status. However, 31% of forest assessments still show a bad conservation status and 54% a poor conservation status (EEA 2019). This suggests that European forests have not escaped the global trend of biodiversity loss, and one of the targets of forest management is to increase biodiversity to improve this.
Connected to this, the EU has recently launched the Restoration regulation, aimed at improving the situation. This builds upon the Biodiversity Strategy which aims for 10% of all lands under strict set aside. In addition, the Commission’s Green Deal aims for protection of 30% of the land ecosystems. These current developments underline the relevance and timeliness of the course subject.
Improving biodiversity may be achieved through a variety of measures: from strict protection and set asides, to closer to nature management forms and more integrated approaches, characterizing land sparing and land sharing options. European forests have a central role to play in biodiversity conservation, as is recognized by recent publications and policy documents. But how to solve conflicting issues locally and regionally, taking into account local demands and stakeholders, remains a problem.
Target group: The course is aimed at PhD candidates, postdocs, and other academics
Course duration: 5 days
Contact: PE&RC Office: office.pe@wur.nl
Registration of interest: You can register your interest HERE (note: this is not an official registration).
Course set-up
The course is planned to run for 7 days, 10 - 16 May 2026.
It starts on a Sunday afternoon with welcome drinks, followed by introductory poster pitches by the participants, and concluded by an opening lecture about the general theme and aims of the course.
Throughout the course, there will be morning lectures (45 min) by experts from the partner institutes as well as from outside. Lectures will cover interdisciplinary aspects related to forests, forest management, disturbances and long term consequences and biodiversity conservation in Europe. These can relate to ecology, but also to social and sustainability aspects, economics, integrated management and governance.
Every teacher provides one paper beforehand so students can prepare questions and discussion points. Before the week starts, 2 students are assigned to a lecture, in order to prepare and lead the discussion (30-45 min).
In the afternoons, participants will work in small teams on a specific group work assignment. This will allow participants to link their theoretical knowledge with real-life challenges, aimed at finding solutions for the issues of our times. They will use EFISCEN-space and its parameterisation for a small region in the Alps. This way, participants will learn to handle and understand the model and then apply to different questions.
The experts will be present for 2-3 days to interact with the participants, to provide topical masterclasses, and to provide input for the group assignment.
In the evenings, there may be one or two leisure lectures by invited speakers or local stakeholders. On Friday afternoon, there is time reserved to explore the region a bit more. On Saturday, the group projects are presented and the Summer School will be wrapped-up so all can make their way home in the afternoon.
The Summer School will include (an) excursion(s) and field visit(s) in the local area, to allow for interaction and exchange of ideas with the stakeholders, and to illustrate the challenges on the ground.
The full programme: ELLS programme and practical info.pdf
Course lecturers/organisers
- Anna Barbati, Università degli Studi della Tuscia, Italy
- Gert-Jan Nabuurs, Forest Ecology & Management, Wageningen University & Research, the Netherlands
- Rodolfo Picchio, Università degli Studi della Tuscia, Italy
- Giorgio Alberti, University of Udine, Italy
- Magda Bou Dagher Kharrat, EFIMED Barcelona, Spain
- Debojyoti Chakraborty, Austrian Research Centre for Forests, BFW Vienna, Austria
- Albert Ciceu, Austrian Research Centre for Forests, BFW Vienna, Austria
- Francesco Latterini, Institute of Dendrology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kórnik, Poland
- Marco Patacca, Wageningen University and Research/School of Life Sciences, Technical University of Munich, Germany
- Alba Viana Soto, School of Life Sciences, Technical University of Munich, Germany
- Claudius van de Vijver and Miriam van Heist, the Graduate School Production Ecology and Resource Conservation (PE&RC), the Netherlands