Proceedings of the Institute of Chartered Foresters’ National Conference, sponsored by the Sylva Foundation, have been published online today. The conference was on the subject of Forests and Energy.
The proceedings are available on our Forestry Horizons website.
Hemery, G. E. (2010). Forests and energy: maximising their potential. Institute of Chartered Foresters, National Conference 28
Yeomans A, Hemery G. (2010) Prospects for the market supply of wood and other forest products from areas with fragmented forest-ownership structures: England case study. Contract report for ConFor and CEPF: Sylva Foundation. 55.
Today, SYLVA gathered together ten leading forestry experts at the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford. This was the final step in completing an EU research programme undertaken as part of our think-tank work.
The research programme is entitled Prospects for the market supply of wood and other forest products from areas with fragmented woodland ownership structures. The research programme is being led by the Confederation of European Forest Owners and involves several European countries.
SYLVA was contracted by ConFor to deliver a study of the English forestry sector as part of this study. The ten experts who attended today’s focus group represented many parts of the forestry sector including major NGOs, large estate managers, private owners of small woodlands, and academics. As part of this work SYLVA’s Director of Forestry, Alistair Yeomans, has already completed an extensive review of literature and interviewed many experts in the industry.
The final written report will be completed this week. We hope to make it available on our website some time in the future at www.ForestryHorizons.eu
Gabriel Hemery reports with Jo Clark on field trials established in 2003 to test five walnut hybrid varieties. Planted within an innovative silvicultutral mixture, five years on, some have shown outstanding growth. The relatively fast growth of this hardwood-producing tree may prove to be a valuable component in some new plantation woodlands, particularly short rotation forestry systems.
More details of the paper can be seen in our Forestry Horizons resources database.
CEO Gabriel Hemery is lead author with eight other international scientists of an important review paper published online this week.
The peer-reviewed paper Growing scattered broadleaves in Europe in a changing climate: a review of risks and opportunities was the result of collaborative work undertaken in an EU scientific exchange programme. The paper was published in Forestry: an international journal of forest research.
More details of the paper can be seen in our Forestry Horizons resources database or viewed direct on the journal website.
Forestry Horizons recent publications
Today we launched a database for Forestry Horizons.
Some 25 different publications are now fully searchable and links to downloadable files or online resources have been streamlined. We have also added an RSS subscription so that notification of our latest publications can come direct to reader’s inboxes if they choose to subscribe.
Some Forestry Horizons highlights
Global Forest Information System
We have linked the database with the Global Forest Information System (GFIS), thereby promoting our resources more effectively to a the worldwide forestry community.
GFIS provides a framework to share forest-related data and information through a single gateway. It promotes the dissemination and sharing of forest and tree-related information and knowledge among the global forestry community by developing common information exchange standards, building capacity and enhancing partnerships among forestry information providers and users.
ICF Proceedings written and compiled by Sylva
The Conference Proceedings written and compiled by Sylva have now been published are available on our think-tank website. Click on the image.
Hemery, G. E. (2009) Timber, mutton or fuel? Debating the economics of land use and forestry. Institute of Chartered Foresters, National Conference 22-23 April 2009, Cardiff. www.charteredforesters.org. pp. 37.
Sylva staff enjoyed attending the Institute of Chartered Foresters’ national conference in Cardiff last week on the topic of land use and forestry.
Sylva CEO Gabriel Hemery gave a presentation to the 130 delegates on Future-proof woodland design and management, questioning recent ‘blind-alley’ policies and ‘lowest common denominators’ in decision making. He offered ‘nativeness’ as an example of a lowest common denominator where woodland policies have often advocated only native and failed to support additional dimensions such as providing quality timber, being healthy, having genetic variation or even being future-proof.
just 2% of England’s land area is woodland in private ownership and managed according to known standards
Dr Hemery also graphically demonstrated the current ‘moribund’ state of England’s woodlands. He asked all 130 delegates to stand and then explained that each person represented 1% of England’s land area (130,000 ha each). Thanks to some cleverly distributed stickers, he then managed to get everyone except nine delegates to sit; those left standing represented the 9% woodland cover in England. However, some harsh statistics were graphically demonstrated when he revealed that in fact more than half (627,000 ha) of the woodlands in England are not associated in anyway with the Forestry Commission (via grants and licensing etc) and therefore unquantified. So, five people had to sit leaving just four. These four people represented the 4% of land area in England that are woodlands managed to a known standard. Dr Hemery then revealed that half of the known woodland resource (2%) was the public estate managed by the Forestry Commission. After two more people sat down, just two people in a room of 130 delegates were left standing. This strongly illustrated the quite shocking statistic that just 2% of England’s land area is woodland in private ownership and managed according to known standards.
During the two day conference, many interesting ideas and information came forward from the presentations, question and answer sessions, and the main debate. There were perhaps not many answers forthcoming but no-one present could claim to have a crystal ball when considering the future. The Sylva Foundation will be producing proceedings for the conference, which will be available on our think-tank website: www.ForestryHorizons.eu .
We are pleased to be supporting the Institute of Chartered Foresters by co-sponsoring their national conference in Cardiff on 22/23 April 2009 on the topical subject of Landuse and forestry.
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