Project Forest Pioneer
Challenges of forest management in Luxembourg. Systems considerations and citizen science to assess and promote regenerative practices.
Initiative phase: Concept phase
Luxembourg is rich in forests. At 92,000 hectares, they make up more than a third of the territory. Nevertheless, our forests are under increasing pressure. In 2022, a government inventory shows that only 15% of the trees surveyed in Luxembourg show no damage, almost 23% are slightly damaged and around 62% are severely damaged or dead. The effects of climate, economic, technological and environmental change make their future uncertain. Over half of the forest is privately owned. However, forest health as a basis for healthy living is everyone's business. The Forest Pioneer project is working with various stakeholders to analyse the parameters for sustainable forest management.
Through the Forest Pioneer project, we want to develop structures, spaces and processes for social learning for the sustainable management of forests in collaboration with various stakeholders. The aim is to jointly collect and evaluate data in order to better understand which type of regenerative initiatives lead to success under which conditions - whether in private or public forests.
We are developing concepts and methods for networked thinking in order to consider the complex forest system, including its ecological, social and technological components, from different perspectives in participatory processes.
As part of the project, interviews and workshops will be conducted that draw on these methods. As a result, we hope that together we will develop a better understanding of the situation and gain sustainable knowledge for action for forest regeneration. We are particularly interested in the potential of citizen science for participatory forest data collection.
Name of Organization
- Universität Luxemburg
- sustainability@uni.lu
Address & geo
- University of Luxembourg, Kirchberg Campus
- Rue Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi 6
- 1359 Luxembourg
Contact person
- Sophie Zuang
- sophie.zuang@uni.lu
Participation opportunities
Engaged citizen Part time volunteers Expertise/knowledgeInstitution type/carrier
Research facility
Institution-Name
University of Luxembourg
How is your initiative financed?
University of Luxembourg audacity Programm
Participation opportunities
Pupils, forest professionals, forest owners, citizens
What’s needed
Engaged citizen Part time volunteers Expertise/knowledgeObjectives
A mobile APP for data collection by various committed stakeholder groups. The APP will be developed in collaboration with authorities, forest managers, private forest owners, scientific experts, NGOs and schools. This application is being jointly developed to facilitate routine data collection for educational, research and official purposes and to be used in guided tours and organised data collection campaigns.
Remote sensing with drones can assess the extent and condition of ecosystems, generates spatially coherent data and enables species differentiation. Forest Pioneer will focus on the identification of individual trees, combining advanced deep learning algorithms with LiDAR and hyperspectral imaging (HSI) sensors. This technology will enable precise mapping of tree species, sizes, above-ground biomass, carbon density and pest infestation, providing important insights for forest health monitoring.
An integrated web platform to make the jointly produced and official data accessible to the various stakeholder groups in a meaningful way. This can be achieved by developing different web portals as entry points for each stakeholder group with customised presentations of data and explanations. A link to other relevant levels of the geoportail is being examined.
Involve stakeholders such as private forest owners, authorities and forest managers, scientific experts, non-governmental organisations, teachers and students in the co-design of monitoring tools. This promotes democratic decision-making in forest restoration and management and enables different stakeholders to make meaningful contributions.
Impact
Innovative aspects - a systemic perspective on forests: The Forest Pioneer project proposes to develop a first prototype for an innovative platform and an associated APP to engage different concerned stakeholder groups, including private forest owners, in data collection and meaning-making on forest-human interactions. The approach will take a systemic approach, emphasising that forest health and human health are inextricably linked through a wide range of ecosystem services. By integrating different perspectives through a structured co-design methodology, the project identifies key knowledge-sharing opportunities to address the challenges of collaborative forest management. By viewing forests as a complex socio-ecological system, the project improves environmental literacy and promotes a transformative approach to people's interaction with forests and the ecological environment.
Target audience
Forest owners
Communities
ANF
Foresters
Environmental organisations
Pupils
Citizens
Challenges and learning successes
The future of Luxembourg's forests remains uncertain, particularly due to the unpredictable effects of the polycrisis, including the highly uncertain impact of climate change on the composition and resilience of forests. The role of science in forest management decision-making is changing. With accelerating change in ecological, climatic and social dimensions that affect different sites very differently, models are losing their predictive power. that have inherent limitations and cannot fully capture complex ecological interactions and site-specific variables. Given the complexity of climate change, traditional forestry methods for determining allowable harvest rates are also proving inadequate and need to be revised.