Impacts of climate change induced extreme windthrow events on forest management and economy of European forest enterprises (ExWiFE)

An increase of extreme environmental disturbances is expected, which is for different reasons a big challenge for forest stakeholders on the operating-, strategic-, financial- and environmental level, but has not yet been addressed from a management perspective in a satisfying way. We aim to describe the complexity of the current problem that extreme disturbances cause for the provision of forest ecosystem services, including the linkages of different drivers from local to international dimension. Diverse methods will be used (literature review, conduction of a survey, statistical analysis) to gather findings from different disciplines (e.g. nature conservation, economy) in order to develop first approaches leading to sustainable forest management solutions. The results will serve as basis for a follow-up project aiming to implement these solutions to ensure the provision of multiple ecosystem services in the long-term and even in extreme management situations.