Third Cross-Project Meeting and Travellab in Porto

12. June 2018 – 14. June 2018, Porto, Portugal

The third cross-project meeting took place in Porto, at the Catholic University of Portugal on 12-14 June 2018. It focused on alternative ways to manage forests at stand level, and the simulations of current approaches to management on the landscape level, under different market and climate scenarios. In addition, the project partners presented the “lessons learnt” from the first round of stakeholder workshops conducted in several European countries.

The Portuguese project team (University of Lisbon, School of Agriculture and the Forest Owners Association AFVS) organized TRAVELLAB sessions shedding light on the local conditions in the Portuguese Case Study Area “Vale do Sousa” and exploring the needs for alternative forest management models. The project partners visited different forest stands in the case study area, e.g. short rotation coppice eucalyptus and maritime pine forests, including plots heavily damaged by forest fires under 2017. The current forest management challenges and possible solutions were discussed in forests as well as at the subsequent stakeholder roundtable that included representatives of state forest administration, private forest owners, municipal foresters, environmental NGO, and researchers. The biggest challenges are posed by high risks of fire and the fragmented ownership, where many holdings are unmanaged due to passive or unknown ownership.

For detailed information about the case study area and the field visit please download the Porto Travellab documentation.

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