FOREST PIONEER – Challenges of Forest Management in Luxembourg. Systemic Considerations and Citizen Science for the Evaluation and Promotion of Regenerative Practices.
Main Question:
How does citizen science influence the co-design of forest management approaches? How can we promote regeneration?
Luxembourg is rich in forests, covering 92,000 hectares, which make up more than a third of the country's territory. However, our forests are facing increasing pressures. A national inventory conducted in 2022 revealed that only 15% of the trees examined in Luxembourg showed no damage, nearly 23% were slightly damaged, and around 62% were severely damaged or dead. The effects of changes in climate, economy, technology, and the environment make their future uncertain. More than half of the forests are privately owned. However, forest health, as a foundation for healthy living, concerns everyone.
Through the Forest Pioneer project, we aim to collaborate with various stakeholders to develop structures, spaces, and processes for societal learning to foster sustainable forest management. Together, data will be collected and assessed to better understand which types of regenerative initiatives succeed under different conditions, whether in private or public forests.
We are developing concepts and methods for connected thinking to consider the complex forest system, with its ecological, social, and technological components, from different perspectives in participatory processes. As part of the project, interviews and workshops will be conducted, drawing on these methods. As a result, we hope to jointly build a better understanding of the situation and gain actionable knowledge for forest regeneration. The potential of citizen science for participatory data collection on forests is of particular interest to us in this endeavour.
The Objectives:
- Review current policy and literature on regenerative forestry in the context of climate change, develop 2-3 case studies of forest regeneration projects, as well as advice on how individuals can engage in the protection of forests.
- Explore what data could be collected with citizen science to understand personal assessments of the impact of spending time in forests on health and well being.
- Identify relevant indicators of successful regenerative forestry. What might be useful observations / data that citizens can collect on forest walks about sites where assisted forest regeneration takes place?
- Explore how citizen science can serve as an educational tool to gain a deeper understanding of forest ecosystems and their services.
- Develop and validate with the university ScienceTeens lab https://www.uni.lu/life-en/scienteens-lab/) a set of data to be collected with citizen science APP supporting an educational course on forest ecosystem services.
Methods:
Interview with stakeholders to:
- Set the scene and learn what forest regeneration means, also to get a bit into philosophical discussion behind the core concepts and assumptions in the interviewee's stance.
- Understand forest regeneration in the face of climate change by gathering perspectives from diverse stakeholders, identifying promising measures, barriers, and ways to overcome them.
- Understand who influences and is influenced by forest regeneration, including their roles and diverse viewpoints.
- Explore the potential of citizen science to engage the public in data collection and forest regeneration efforts.
- Understand the future outlook of those shaping the forest sector, including their short-term plans and how they envision future forests.
