International IUFRO Symposium

Climate change and increasing extreme weather events, continuing losses of forest area and forest habitats by degradation and deforestation, intensifying land-use competition by multiple stakeholder groups: the pressure and demands on forests and forestry is strong. Therefore, future challenges for forest owner are, e.g. that forests must serve as a sound habitat for native plant and animal species, must be adapted to climate change and are vital to achieving climate mitigation targets. They are urged to consider all kinds of societal demands while simultaneously dealing with forest calamities, maintaining economic viability and producing enough timber for bioeconomy. This is also reflected in various rules, regulations and strategies, that can have impacts on forest enterprises, on international and national level (e.g. UNFCCC, LULUCF, CBD).

In order to face the challenges of a changing world, forest owners, scientists, administrational staff and politicians on all levels must make informed choices on future forest management activities. Managerial economics and accounting are important analytical instruments for identifying and evaluating forest management action alternatives and to support knowledge-building and decision-making. Indeed, the interest for the evaluation of forest management options and forest functions strongly increased in the past decades. Against this background, the organizers of this Symposium aim to foster the scientific exchange on recent developments, research and best practices from managerial economics and accounting on regional, national and international level as a base for decision making in a changing world.