Landscape resilience and woody plant diversity
The Eva Mayr-Stihl Foundation is funding two projects at the Faculty of Forest Science and Forest Ecology at the University of Göttingen. The faculty is receiving almost 2 million euros to set up a centre of excellence for landscape resilience. The centre will conduct research into how forest and agricultural areas can adapt to climate-related changes. In addition, the university's Forest Botanical Garden will receive 675,000 euros to preserve the diversity of woody plants and make them more tangible again.
The Competence Centre for Landscape Resilience will investigate the reciprocal influence of forest and agricultural areas in the face of increasing climatic disturbances such as drought, heat and flooding. ‘The University of Göttingen offers particularly good conditions for this project, as it is the only university in Germany with independent faculties for forestry and agricultural sciences,’ says Prof Dr Christian Ammer, Dean of the Faculty of Forest Sciences and Forest Ecology. The funding is intended to anchor the subject area at the university and make it internationally visible, strengthen the exchange between the faculties as well as transdisciplinary and transformative research and reach beyond the scientific community to stakeholders such as forest owners, farmers and the general public.
The Forest Botanical Garden is considered one of the most important collections of woody plants in Central Europe and a centre for research into native and exotic tree and shrub species. It provides a sanctuary for rare and endangered species, safeguards the diversity of forest genetic resources and provides plant material for research and teaching. It is also used as a local recreation area and excursion destination. The funding is intended to establish a scientific management organisation. It has the task of developing a long-term scientific concept for the garden, scientifically analysing and supervising the collection, initiating research projects and developing concepts for teaching, public relations and environmental education.
‘We want to strengthen forest sciences in Germany, as they play an important role in the context of climate change,’ says Robert Mayr, founder and CEO of the Eva Mayr-Stihl Foundation, explaining the reasons for the commitment. ‘We are very grateful to the Eva Mayr-Stihl Foundation for its generous support of our faculty,’ says Ammer. ‘It supports the development of innovative and efficient research structures and also helps to open up new fields of research on pressing issues of the future. At the same time, young scientists are given the opportunity to prove themselves and establish themselves in these fields.’
The Eva Mayr-Stihl Foundation is an independent, non-profit organisation. It was established in 1986 by Eva Mayr-Stihl and Robert Mayr. The foundation's work focuses on science and research, medicine, art and culture.
Contact
Prof Dr Christian Ammer
Georg-August-University Göttingen
Faculty of Forest Sciences and Forest Ecology - Dean's Office
Büsgenweg 1, 37077 Göttingen, Telephone: 0551 39-23671
E-mail: christian.ammer@forst.uni-goettingen.de
