The most pressing current challenge for forestry is the adaptation of stands to climate change. The frequency and intensity of heat waves and drought periods are expected to increase in the coming decades. The likelihood of large-scale damage from storm events – like the Lothar windstorm in 1999 – remains high.
In managed forests, trees typically live between 80 and 200 years before being harvested. This means that today's management decisions will have lasting effects well into the future. It is therefore essential to regularly assess whether stand development still aligns with silvicultural goals and current knowledge about climate-related risks.
There are different strategies for adapting forests to climate change:
- Reactive approaches rely on the natural adaptive capacity of trees and forest ecosystems, drawing primarily on natural regeneration from already-present tree species.
- Proactive approaches aim to increase tree species diversity, structural complexity, and ecosystem resilience through targeted silvicultural interventions, early initiation of regeneration, and supplementary planting of future-viable tree species.
To test the effectiveness of different adaptive forest management strategies, the EFM plot network will be expanded in the future. A pilot experiment is currently being planned to develop a suitable experimental design, on the basis of which additional research sites will be added.