WWF Hungary organized a meeting and site visit for their private forest owner partners within the CLIMAFORCEELIFE project on 16-17 June in the area of Bükkszék and Bátor. As part of the visit, participants went to see one of the demonstration sites of the LIFE4Oak Forests project in Kerecsend (Bükk National Park) where forestry measures to be applied within the CLIMAFORCEELIFE project have already been implemented.

The Climate-smart Forest Management for Central and Eastern Europe (CLIMAFORCEE) LIFE project (LIFE19 CCA/SK/001276) which is financed from the LIFE Climate action sub-programme of the European Union, started in September 2020 and will last for seven years, by the end of 2027. The project covers 5 countries in Central and Eastern Europe: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. The project partners include four WWF offices (Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia), the Southwestern State Forest Enterprise of Bulgaria, the Czech University of Life Sciences, the National Association of Private Forest Owners and Forest Managers from Hungary and the Forests of the Slovak Republic.

During the project selected forest management models currently used in Central and Eastern Europe will be reviewed from the viewpoint of climate change. The project will test the application of climate-smart forestry measures: different kinds of selective logging and small-scale shelter wood system instead of clear-cut, advanced thinning methods; local soil preparation instead of a large-scale, small water retention; transformation of forest stands with more resilient tree species and higher proportion of admixed species. These measures will be implemented in the demonstration sites of three countries (Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia) and assess their economic feasibility and environmental impact compared to the conventional forestry methods.