For the climate-robust forest: landowners and hunters in the Naumburg area agree on game management

Hunters and forest owners can work together when it comes to climate adaptation of low mountain forests - that is the message of a game management package that foresters, hunters, representatives of the municipal forest owner and the hunting cooperative have now put together in Naumburg/North Hesse. It now has to be approved by the municipal decision-makers.

It involves a series of measures with which the hunters want to support a future-oriented development of the forest; these include, for example, the introduction of new game rest zones, the definition of hunting focal points or the abandonment of night hunting for wild boar in certain areas. This should make it easier for community forest owners to plant a greater variety of tree species, rejuvenate stands or take other steps to prepare the forest for coming climate changes.

Since the beginning of 2015, the project "Climate Forest - Successful Climate Adaptation in Community Forests" has developed  measures to make lowland forests more resilient to the impacts of climate change. It was funded by the Federal Environment Ministry and, as a pilot project, also serves as a model for other regions in Germany. The project was coordinated by the University of Kassel. The results now achieved form the conclusion of the project and will be publicly presented in Naumburg on Thursday, November 2 (5 p.m., Haus des Gastes, Hattenhäuser Weg 10 - 12).

"The package of measures shows that forest owners and hunters can pull together when it comes to making the forest fit for climate change," notes Dr. Christian Henschke, managing director of the CliMA Competence Center for Climate Protection and Climate Adaptation at the University of Kassel; he coordinated the project. "There were controversial, but always constructive, discussions in Naumburg. After all, only a robust and healthy forest ultimately benefits hunters; conversely, sensible hunting use stabilizes the forest. The agreement shows that the necessary climate adaptation of the coming years can provide impetus to overcome clashes of interests between forest owners and forest users."

The agreement concerns only the leased forest areas of the city of Naumburg in the area of responsibility of the Naumburg small game preserve community. The parties involved were the towns of Naumburg and Wolfhagen, the hunting leaseholders in the area, the Naumburg and Wolfhagen hunting communities, the Naumburg hunting cooperative, the association of hunting cooperatives and private owners of their own hunts in the district of Kassel, the head of the Wolfhagen forestry office and the responsible district foresters, the lower hunting authority, the Hessen Forestry State Office, and the Landscape and Vegetation Ecology Department of the University of Kassel. Other hunting communities that had originally been involved in Klimwald, however, withdrew from the project in summer 2016. The catalog of measures will now be presented to the city of Naumburg  and the hunting cooperative. The partners involved in the work process want to start implementing the measures as soon as possible.

Presentation of the project results and the catalog of measures:

Thursday, November 2, 2017, 5 p.m.
Haus des Gastes, Hattenhäuser Weg 10 - 12, 34311 Naumburg, Germany.

Photo recommendation for editors:
Picture of deer or of wild boar in the forest
Pictures of the city of Naumburg/Hessen

Contact:

Dr. Christian Henschke
Competence Center for Climate Protection and Climate Adaptation CliMA
Managing Director
University of Kassel
E-mail: chenschk@uni-kassel.de
Tel.: +49 (0)561-804 7261