CIHEAM Press Review

You are warmly welcome to our next ThinkForest webinar, which explores the issue of sustainable finance, forests and biodiversity. Biodiversity is heavily threatened, both in Europe and globally. Immediate action to stop further loss and to maintain and enhance biodiversity, especially in forests, is needed. Public finance plays an important role, but privately financed activities are becoming more and more important.

Practitioners from 11 Mediterranean countries participated in a public survey to identify and understand the principal needs, barriers, bottlenecks, innovation, and knowledge gaps needed to make agriculture and forestry systems resilient to socioeconomic and climate changes.

European agriculture needs to evolve in the face of climate change, a reduction in the abundance of insects and farmland birds, pollution, and the need to improve human health. Greater and more effective use of agroforestry, the integration of woody perennials with livestock and/or crop production, is a proven means to maintain food production whilst addressing these issues.

Emboscar is a Catalan verb that has two main definitions. From the more poetic and literary “to get lost and go deep into the vastness of a forest” to the more commonly used, specifically in the field of defence: “to be in a hidden place to surprise the enemy”. Someone who is emboscat / emboscada, therefore, is someone who gets lost in the woods and feels good about it but also someone who is ambushed.

Eucalyptus trees are a common sight in Portugal, and they have been a part of the country's landscape for many years. These trees are known for their unique physical characteristics, rapid growth rate, and numerous uses. However, the use of eucalyptus trees in Portugal has also raised concerns about their impact on the environment.

Forests have been growing in size in the EU over recent decades, but why are there such large discrepancies across the continent

Le Groupe Interacadémique pour le Développement (GID) et le Centre International des Hautes Études Agronomiques Méditerranéennes (CIHEAM), avec le soutien de l'Académie d'Agriculture de France, de l’Institut Européen des Forêts (EFI) et l'appui technique de l’Organisation des Nations unies pour l’alimentation et l’agriculture (FAO), organisent la Xème Conférence PARMENIDES qui se tiendra à l’Institut CIHEAM de Chania (Grèce) les 24, 25 et 26 octobre 2023 : « Les arbres et la forêt face aux changements globaux : les pays méditerranéens à l’avant-garde »

The destruction of tropical rainforests harms the diversity of mosquito species, causing more resilient species to become prevalent.

Around 20 people from various environmental associations, gathered in Porto to say “enough with eucalyptus” and to demand the reforestation of native trees to stop desertification, drought, loss of biodiversity and fires.

Sustainable forestry is the response to damaging ecological practices, but many believe it is a myth because the negative environmental impacts outweigh the positive ones.
While it is true that some industries can be damaging to the environment, there are plenty of ways to counteract that with positive behaviors. Sustainable forestry is achievable if people give forests the proper care they deserve.

Since forests are such a critical part of life on Earth, keeping them safe is vital. Sustainable forestry is the response to damaging ecological practices, but many believe it is a myth because the negative environmental impacts outweigh the positive ones.

While it is true that some industries can be damaging to the environment, there are plenty of ways to counteract that with positive behaviors. Sustainable forestry is achievable if people give forests the proper care they deserve.

Iraq's PM announced a campaign to combat the severe impacts of climate change on the water-scarce country, including planting 5 million trees. 

Unlike animals, plants are rooted to a place and don’t have the ability to get away when things take a turn for the worse. This can pose great challenges when a changing climate makes certain areas less suitable.

Austria and six other EU member states are seeking to delay the implementation of a pioneering anti-deforestation law in the bloc, and exempt small-scale farmers from the rules, according to a note circulated among member states head of a meeting with farming ministers on Tuesday (26 March), seen by Euractiv.

Wildfires are a major threat to the environment and to people. They are unpredictable and difficult to control, but with measures, prevention and quick response, the consequences of this natural disaster can be reduced. As a trainee at the European Forestry Institute, I was involved in developing and writing a new publication Wildfire risk planning […]

A new study by the Institute of Mediterranean Forest Ecosystems (IMFE) in Greece focuses on climate change and extreme weather outcomes in Greek forests. The research relies on data from the Scopus and Mendeley databases as well as few official reports and identifies two to four knowledge gaps and one to three key challenges related […]

The  Groupe Interacadémique pour le Développement (GID) and the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM), with the support of the Académie des Sciences de France, the Académie d'Agriculture de France, the European Forest Institute (EFI) and the technical support of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), organised the 10th PARMENIDES Conference at the CIHEAM Institute in Chania (Greece) from 24 to 26 October 2023, entitled “Trees and Forests in the Face of Global Change: Mediterranean Countries at the Forefront”.

In the Moulière massif in the Vienne département, France's strategy for tackling climate change is called the "mosaic forest".
Here, a conquering birch grows among the oaks, and a young pine replaces its dying cousins.
Summer slips into autumn in the former royal forest northeast of Poitiers. It remains green, but some deciduous trees have lost their branches and Scots pines are scorched. France has seen fewer wildfires than in 2022, but dieback still continues at a low level.

After a megafire burned across the southern part of the regional unit of Evros in northeastern Greece for 17 days, olive farmers and experts are assessing losses and considering steps toward regeneration.

Europe’s July heatwaves were made 950 times more likely because of human caused climate change, scientists have found.

Droughts and heatwaves are causing Europe’s forests to turn brown in the summer months.
Last year, 37 per cent of Mediterranean and central European forests were affected, a new study reveals.
Researchers from ETH Zurich University and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) have been examining the phenomenon over the past 21 years.

Planting new forests on 14 million hectares of available land across the continent could balance out the emissions of millions of Europeans every year, Kristjan Lepik and Lisett Luik write.