Aid for cross-border forest managers
Even under ideal circumstances, forest management involves many difficult decisions. Cross-border forest management is even more difficult, thereby justifying the need for decision support. The EU-funded FORADAPT (Decision support toolkit for adaptive management of forest ecosystem services across borders in the face of climate change and economic scarcity in Europe) project developed such support intended to help manage ecosystem services. The venture was structured into three subprogrammes. The team examined opportunities and challenges for cross-border management, supported protected area (PA) managers in developing solutions, and shared results with the conservation and resource management community. FORADAPT facilitated learning about the context of cross-border management by surveying PA managers who were members of the EUROPARC Federation. The survey queried factors driving the perspectives of such managers about cross-border management for the coming decade. Respondents listed the main barriers as being lack of human and economic resources, communication, and cross-border political and legal differences. The team identified the potential for European policies to address such issues and help implement green infrastructure networks. The survey also queried managers about the types of support they would like to receive. About half of respondents stated a preference for a web portal focusing on external funding opportunities. FORADAPT undertook to develop and host a suitable web portal. Researchers also evaluated the effectiveness of participatory decision analysis in two cross-border cases. The evaluation led to jointly agreed multi-year resource allocations for Europe’s two mountainous regions. The team recommended a participatory process that achieves effective conservation by addressing park managers’ wishes in terms of competence, autonomy, relatedness and iterativeness. Finally, the team shared its results with the research community. The group organised standard scientific gatherings and publications, plus webinars and public lectures. A highlight was the team’s collaboration with the International Union for Conservation of Nature regarding input for the design and content of the PANORAMA web platform. The platform permits a keyword search of existing solutions and allows users to submit and revise new solutions. FORADAPT researchers developed and submitted nine solutions. The project yielded the support and resources forest managers need to manage in cross-border situations, thereby resulting in more effective conservation.
