How to build a forest restoration community
On November 20-22, 2023, our hybrid SUPERB Restoration Project Festival brought together 25 forest restoration experts in Milan in addition to a vibrant online community. Here we recap the key moments:
Day 1 started with a deep dive into innovative funding and long-term continuity for forest restoration projects:
- Dr. Thomas Campagnaro from the Università degli Studi di Padova shared insights on upscaling approaches in forest biodiversity, including the BOTTOMS-UP project
- Antti Leinonen from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland presented the Forest Biodiversity Programme METSO and its success in securing long-term funding.
- Dr. Giustino Mezzalira, forestry engineer and consultant, discussed innovative financing for large-scale forest restoration on the Marcesina plateau in Italy.
Day 2 was all about collaboration and knowledge exchange:
- Participants took centre stage and shared best practices on boosting ecosystem resilience, reconciling conflicting goals and objectives, monitoring project successes and building partnership within their respective projects.
- The SUPERB Gateway – an upcoming public online database for tools on forest restoration practice, science, governance, and funding – was presented.
- Participants completed the SUPERB Practice Questionnaire which aims to bring valuable information from across European forestry projects to this community. Would you like to contribute? Please complete the survey here.
On Day 3 we explored the impactful role of storytelling in fostering multistakeholder collaboration in restoration. In this workshop by the European Forest Institute, we drew examples from the SUPERB demonstrator area Vindeläven-Juhtatdahka Biosphere Reserve in Sweden.
In Milan, the festival concluded with a guided visit led by SUPERB partner Fabio Campana to Parco Nord, the city’s largest urban forest and part of the SUPERB Po Valley demo area.
The success of the festival was the achievement of our participants and owes much to our diverse speakers on days 2 and 3:
- Dr. Marco Bassi from the Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas (ICCA Consortium) on recognising local knowledge in conservation.
- Sergio Gallo of the Fondazione AlberItalia and Dr. Barbara Darr, representing the Gelsenkirchen/Ruhr Area CLEARING HOUSE project, provided insights into afforestation initiatives in urban and industrialized areas.
- Toni Ventre from the Mediterranean Model Forest Network (MMFN) on forging partnerships and knowledge exchange in sustainable forest management.
Lastly, congratulations to Marijan Lozancic on winning the festival’s visual exhibition contest with a video on demining interventions in Bosnian forests!
A heartfelt thanks to our project partners and speakers for their cooperation, and to all participants for joining us to share their invaluable perspectives and build future partnerships.
The event was organised by SUPERB partner Prospex Institute.
