Research

Raising awareness and modelling the forest fire danger are essential aspects of preventive measures for an integrated forest fire management. In Austria, there are currently only a few initiatives for rising awareness about the current fire danger and platforms that support the modelling. The Institute of Silviculture is currently running the prototype of an integrated system for forest fire risk assessment (waldbrand.at) and the only forest fire blog (fireblog.boku.ac.at). These two established platforms require constant support and further development. Within the scope of this project, measures are therefore to be taken to ensure the functionality and performance, conduct necessary updates and bug fixes as well as ensure the security of both platforms. Additionally new functionalities should be implemented and a higher media outreach should be achieved through cooperations with different target groups and communication channels. The platforms should be used as an expert tool for forest fire danger assessment, bundle existing knowledge on forest fires and serve as an effective communication channel in close cooperation with ongoing forest fire projects.

CircularFoods has set itself the goal of making the best possible use of regionally available food residues and producing new high-quality products from such residues. In a circular approach, CircularFoods aims to obtain high-quality protein components from various residual materials, investigate the effects on possible subsequent biogas production, and develop innovative liquid biofertilizers, new growing media (peat substitutes) and fertilizer pellets from the fermentation residues (possibly in a mixture with other residual material fractions). The best possible cascading use should contribute to a significant increase in the added value of food residues and, in line with the Austrian circular economy strategy, to maximum material use in combination with possible biogas production (not the focus of research in this project). The use of energy-efficient processes and research into optimal carbon utilization via the cascading approach should lay the foundation for the long-term vision of a climate-positive food cycle.

The overall aim of this project is to provide practical guidance on the successful restoration of native forests in the Ethiopian highlands. To address this, we will use an approach that will strengthen the supply of native tree species, combined with investigations of establishment of this material in tree species diverse plantations. This will be realized by strengthening the national reproductive material supply by establishment of seedling seed orchards of the target species (Juniperus procera, Prunus africana, Podocarpus gracilior, Albizia gummifera, Olea europaea sub sp. cuspidata, Cordia africana, Millettia ferruginea), methods of vegetative propagation (primarily for Juniperus procera but also for other species), and investigation of the growth of the target species in the tree species diverse plots. In the plots, the mineral nutrient requirements tree species and plant protection methods to aid successful establishment will be addressed. The HIGH FIVE project will build on the experience and data gained in previous projects by the consortium, which is made up of two Austrian partners, the Federal Research and Training Centre for Forests, Natural Hazards and Landscape (BFW) and the University of Natural Resources and Life Science (BOKU), and the Ethiopian Forest Development agency (EFD) and Bahir Dar University (BDU) from Ethiopia, and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) from Kenya.