Chair of Forestry Economics and Forest Planning

Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources

Chair of Forestry Economics and Forest Planning

Abkürzung der Fakultät für Umwelt und Natürliche Ressourcen "unr" in der Farbe sand auf grünem, kreisförmigen Hintergrund

The research of the Chair of Forest Economics and Forest Planning focusses on the management of forests, considering a variety of ecosystem services against the background of uncertainty and risk. In research and teaching, the influence of global change, including multiple risks and uncertainties, is analysed from a classical economic perspective, as well as how decision-makers deal with uncertainty and risk from a social science perspective.

News

Awards and honours

Gerhard Speidel Prize 2025

In memory of his work and to promote young scientists, the Speidel family has established the Gerhard Speidel Prize at the Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Freiburg for outstanding scientific achievements in forestry economics and social sciences.

The main prize is endowed with €10,000 and is awarded for an outstanding dissertation or habilitation thesis.
The Young Scientist Award is awarded for an outstanding Master’s thesis (or comparable achievement) and is endowed with €4,000.
Applications are open until 15 December 2025.

Differences in FES between the reference climate and warming scenario

New publication

Djahangard, M., Costa, M., Bugmann, H., & Yousefpour, R. (2026). Global warming levels exceeding 2 °C may cause tipping point of low elevation forests in a peri-urban forest of the Black Forest foothills. Forest Ecosystems, 15, 100403.

This study assessed Freiburg’s forests under 1.5–3 °C warming, finding increased drought mortality, declining timber production, and degraded ecosystem services, with severe impacts occurring when warming exceeds 2 °C.

Event

Graduation ceremony, doctoral graduation ceremony and award ceremony of the Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources on 12 December 2025

This year, the Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources will once again celebrate the successful completion of their respective degree programmes together with the ‘fresh’ graduates, the newly promoted doctors, but also with the silver and gold doctoral anniversary celebrants. In addition, the faculty’s alumni awards and the Leibundgut Prize will be presented at this festive event.

Research

Our research focus and current projects

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Teaching

Our courses and information about final theses

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Team

Introduction of our team members with a list of contact details

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Participation in the Future Forests Cluster of Excellence

The adaptation of complex social-ecological systems to global change is the subject of a Cluster of Excellence Initiative at the German Research Foundation. The aim of the cluster initiative is to develop, analyse and evaluate transformation pathways towards resilient forest-based social-ecological systems, their governance, management and use. The head of the Chair, M. Hanewinkel, is one of the co-spokespersons of the cluster.

Abstraktes Key Visual Future Forests: Bäume, Weltkugel