Projects and research

HybOakAdapt – Genomics of hybridization in white oaks for climate-adapted Austrian forests - Project

The project, funded by the Climate Energy Fund, investigates white oak species complexes as a model system and the role of hybridization in climate adaptation. A particular focus is on Austria and south-eastern Europe.

Unit for Ecological Genetics

RE-ENFORCE – Transnational Cooperation on nature-based solutions for restoring degraded forests of Central Europe - Project RE-ENFORCE

The forests of Central Europe provide a diverse range of ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, protective functions, biodiversity support, and job creation, while also serving as cost-effective measures for climate protection. However, the effects of climate change are increasingly threatening forest ecosystems and presenting them with major challenges in terms of adapting to changing climatic conditions and protecting biodiversity.

Unit for Forest Growth

Forest Groove – forest biodiversity in harmony - Project "Forest Groove"

When pupils investigate the biodiversity of the forest not with a microscope but with a microphone and create their own sound mixes, then they are part of the innovative Sparkling Science project "Forest Groove" of the Austrian Research Centre for Forests (BFW). The project creatively combines science, environmental education and music.

Unit for Communications & Knowledge Transfer

City – Tree – Soil - Project

The ‘City - Tree - Soil’ project is investigating how the urban environment affects the soil and tree growth.

Unit for Site & Vegetation

The European network Integrate - Network

As early as the COST Action E27 on the harmonization of protected forest areas (2002-2006), it became clear that protected forest areas in the strict categories account for only around 3% of Europe's forest area. The question therefore remains: what is happening in terms of biodiversity conservation in the remaining 97% of the forest?

Department for Forest Biodiversity & Nature Conservation

Woodland Bird Index for Austria - Project WBI

The main task are indicator update, review of representiveness and knowledge transfer.

Department for Forest Biodiversity & Nature Conservation

Measuring Greenhouse Gases in Singapur - Inventory

With the SINSOIL project, the first baseline data on soil GHG emissions (CO2, N2O and CH4) from a natural forest land and an urban parkland in Singapur under commonly used management practices (grass vegetation, N fixing plants and compost application) over a 1 year period will be collected. Studies on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in […]

Department for Forest Ecology & Soil

AvaRange | Understanding the Flow Mobility of Avalanches - Cooperation for Researching Avalanches

In-flow data with high precision in real avalanche scenarios are the product of the cooperative project of BFW Institute for Natural Hazards Innsbruck, TU Berlin and University of Innsbruck. This approach is now being applied for the first time to snow avalanches. The destructive potential of gravitational mass flows, such as snow avalanches, has a […]

Unit for Snow & Avalanches

Buchenwald im Herbst, mit teils verfärbten Blättern

Climate change: How forest owners are being helped - ManageBeech Project

Global warming is forcing forest owners to adapt their forests to future climatic conditions. In the course of forest conversion, the future of the forest is to be secured with new tree species or combinations. But climate fitness is not the only goal: forests should be profitable, have a high level of biodiversity and also act as a greenhouse gas sink. How to reconcile all this is the focus of the two-year ACRP research project ManageBeech.

Department for Forest Ecology & Soil

Scent detection dogs for the Asian longhorn beetle - Training course

Global trade and worldwide shipping of wood and wood packaging material lead to an increase in Asian longhorn beetle outbreaks in Europe. Dogs are trained at the BFW in Vienna to detect Anoplophora.

Unit for Plant Health and Timber Trade Control

Buchenwald bei Pottenstein, Niederösterreich

Gene conservation forests - Forest genetics

Gene conservation forests are the instrument for in situ gene conservation of forest genetic resources in Austria.