Federal Research and Training Centre for Forests, Natural Hazards and Landscape joined EFI in 1998. Dr. Peter Mayer, their Director introduces their work and why they joined EFI.
The BFW is an Austrian, multidisciplinary training and research centre of the federal government in the legal form of a “public law institution”. We consist of six departments and two forestry training centres, Traunkirchen and Ossiach. The headquarters of the BFW is located in Schönbrunn/Vienna, in addition there is a site in Innsbruck, an experimental garden near Tulln and a teaching and experimental forest in Carinthia. BFW currently has about 320 employees.
The work of BFW improves national and international knowledge and understanding of all aspects of forests and the interaction between people, nature and the economy. The BFW achieves this through entrepreneurial action and the best possible advice to policy-makers, administrators, practitioners and the public. This is based on research, its monitoring tasks, education and training, and by fulfilling the sovereign tasks assigned to the BFW.
Why did you join?
I joined EFI because of the importance of pan-European cooperation to work on solutions for forests and society. Forests and environment do not have national borders.
Have you attended any EFI-events?
I attended several: Annual Conferences, Forest Policy Seminars and also ThinkForest Events
What one member benefit is most valuable to you?
For me the most valuable benefit is working together on the science-policy communication in the EU.
What is your favorite memory associated with EFI?
Helping to develop the ThinkForest idea! Science/policy communication is very important for EFI and all research originations alike. Through ThinkForest a new mechanism could be established that provides fact-based research information for political decision making at the EU level, especially for the European Parliament.
ThinkForest is a European high-level forum on the future of forests, established by EFI in 2012. ThinkForest works to identify information needs related to forest policy questions and build a common understanding of the problems at hand. By helping policy makers navigate through the wealth of information on offer and providing them with the best available expertise and the latest research-based information from the scientific community it enables informed decision making on strategic forest issues. The ThinkForest forum brings together policymakers, the scientific community and stakeholders, offering a space for science-policy dialogue which builds bridges on pan-European forest and bioeconomy issues. Find out more here.
What is your favorite tree?
Maple
Feature image:©Hanna – stock.adobe.com and photo of Peter Mayer BFW/Marianne Schreck
