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International Conference

Mountain Forest Management in a Changing World

7-9 July 2015

Smokovce, High Tatra Mountains, Slovakia

First Announcement and Call for Abstracts

Scope & Objectives

Mountain forests are characterized by steep ecological gradients and constraints on silviculture and logging techniques. At high altitudes, harsh environmental conditions limit productivity and slow down regeneration processes, making mountain forests sensitive to management interventions. Interest in intensified biomass utilization for energy production and supply of wood-based industries may increase the pressure on mountain forest ecosystems. At the same time, the share of mountain forests where management is abandoned is increasing in Europe because commercial forestry is no longer profitable due to the increasing cost of management and/or decreasing revenues from timber production, or decreasing interest of new landowners in forest management. Beyond wood production and biodiversity conservation, such developments are highly likely to also affect the provisioning of ecosystem services such as protection against gravitational hazards or recreational values. Global climate change has been particularly pronounced in mountain regions across the 20th century, reaching twice to three times the temperature increase of the global average. Further climate change is anticipated for the coming decades that will strongly affect mountain regions and thus the delivery of ecosystem services from these areas. The compounding effects of these developments become more acute as there is a large demand for a vast array of ecosystem services by a heterogeneous group of stakeholders.

The conference will provide the opportunity to present and discuss the potentials and limitations of current and possible future approaches to mountain forest management for providing portfolios of ecosystem services under current and future climatic and socio-economic conditions.

Themes of the conference are:

• Potentials and limitations of current management approaches to provide multiple ecosystem services
• Climate change impacts on ecosystem service provisioning in mountain forests
• Disturbance regimes in mountain forests and implications for ecosystem services
• Alternative management strategies in mountain forests and consequences on ecosystem service provisioning
• Decision support tools for mountain forest management
• Governance approaches to secure multiple ecosystem service provisioning in the future

Contributions dealing with one of these topics are welcome.

Conference format

The conference will include invited keynote talks, sessions with contributed oral presentations, a poster exhibit, a field trip (1/2 day) and a panel discussion with decision makers and stakeholder representatives.

We will organize a review process for a Special Issue of an international scientific journal.

Important dates:

Abstract submission: 15 February 2015

Feedback on acceptance of abstracts: 15 March 2015

Early registration deadline: 30 March 2015

Late registration deadline: 15 May 2015

About the conference venue

The venue Smokovce in the High Tatra Mountains (http://slovakia.travel/en/spa-vysoke-tatry-novy-smokovec) can be reached conveniently via Vienna International Airport (VIA). All major airlines fly into Vienna International Airport. We will organize shuttle buses from VIA to the conference venue and back after the conference (details will follow).

Alternatively, you can come by rail or by car.