New Biodiversa+ project

Human-bear coexistence

In a new international project funded through the Biodiversa+ BiodivTransform call, we will investigate coexistence between people and bears in shared landscapes. In this collaboration with partners from Italy, Slovenia, Spain, and Switzerland, we use a transdisciplinary and social-ecological approach to understand the characteristics of social-ecological systems that enable coexistence and design targeted governance approaches to support coexistence across diverse contexts.

Margarete von Wrangell funding

Social-ecological resilience of forest systems

Junior Professor Dr. Ana Stritih has been awarded the Margarete von Wrangell Funding by the State of Baden-Württemberg. Together with postdoctoral researcher Dr. Christina Dollinger, we aim to advance our understanding of forest resilience. Using social-ecological models of forest landscapes, we will conduct in-silico experiments about the role of social dynamics in forests’ resilience to changing climate and disturbance regimes.

New publication

“Closer-to-nature” forest management

“Closer-to-nature” forest management has been proposed as a way to reconcile biodiversity and ecosystem services, especially under a changing climate. But how strong is the evidence?

In a new paper in Current Forestry Reports, we synthesized knowledge from Central Europe, a region with a history of diverse forest management practices that has recently experienced severe impacts of climate change.

Cluster of Excellence

Future Forests

The DFG has approved the funding of a new Cluster of Excellence at the University of Freiburg on Future Forests, which will start in 2026. Within Future Forests, we aim to make novel contributions to understanding and analyzing transformation pathways of forests as adaptive social-ecological systems.

New publication

What is the role of scientists in conservation advocacy?

We addressed this question with participants of the Neretva Science Week, a conservation advocacy event in the Balkans. In a new publication in Environmental Science and Policy, we explored scientists’ perspectives on advocacy, ecological grief, perceived political empowerment, and public engagement.