MANFRED - Management strategies to adapt Alpine Space forests to climate change risks

MANFRED is an Alpine Space project co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund. With the climate change, the ecological conditions for forests in the Alpine Space are fundamentally changing -- with unknown effects on the forests' essential protective, ecological, economical and social functions. Under different climate and land-use change scenarios only an adaptive management can provide the conservation of the natural heritage and the multiple functions. MANFRED bridges the gap between research and practical forest management and seeks to collect knowledge with regard to climate change effects on 4 main topics: forest growth and land use changes, hazards & stressors, best practices to face extreme events protection forests; identify hot spots with concrete need for action on the regional & local level; develop management strategies able to adapt to changing environmental conditions; contribute to the implementation of suggested adapted management strategies in cooperation with political decision makers in 4 transnational case study regions.