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The Alpine region of Tyrol has a long tradition of managing natural hazards, with forests playing a crucial preventive role as a Nature-based Solution. However, rising temperatures driven by climate change have caused increasing damage to these forests, threatening their vital function in protecting human livelihoods.

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Key Learnings

  • Enhancing resilience: Sustainable forest management, including reforestation and creating resilient mountain forests, is becoming increasingly important under a changing climate with more extreme weather events. This approach goes beyond planting trees; it involves avoiding large-scale clear-cutting and allowing nature to build resilience. Key aspects include actively rejuvenating the forest with mixed site-specific trees and structured forest maintenance. Those are some of the key elements to ensure the right forest microclimate and nurture the conditions for the conversion into stable mixed forests.
  • Supporting framework conditions: Beside a sustainable forest management approach the required framework conditions must be in place, such as reducing game and providing tools to choose the right mixed tree species.
  • Raising awareness and collaboration: Specialist training, advisory campaigns, and management concepts for forest owners as well as users contribute to raising awareness. Regional and local stakeholders must work together, considering the various geographical and socio-economic factors to achieve the best possible adaptation outcome.
  • Economic opportunities: Sustainable forest management concepts, such as Climate-Smart Mountain Forestry pose new opportunities for local economic development.

About the Region

Forests cover 41% of the Tyrol, with over 70% designated as protection forests, playing a vital role in safeguarding settlements and socio-economic activities in the alpine valleys. In the municipality of Wildermieming, there are 1,600 hectares of forest, 70% of which is classified as protection forest. The municipality has been practising sustainable forest management for more than two decades.

Climate Threats

For centuries, Tyrolean foresters have largely relied on spruce for its fast growth and economic benefits. However, with climate change becoming more present in alpine areas the protective forest, including the spruce as a predominant species, is now under increasing pressure. In particular, pure stands below 1,000 metres have become more vulnerable to pests and droughts, reducing the resilience of the forest. Storm events, such as those in Eastern Tyrol’s protection forests in 2018, 2019, and 2020, resulting in 1.5 million m³ of damaged timber, exemplify the accelerating trend of dynamic damage developments. The conversion of mountain forests into climate-smart mixed forests has become essential for building resilience and maintaining the forest’s protective function.

The protective forest of Wildermieming – a municipality dedicated to its Protective Forest

In 2005, a debris flow affected the Tyrolean municipality of Wildermieming. The mudslides damaged infrastructure and buildings, but the forest played a crucial role in preventing further damage. A stable protective forest with a healthy humus structure is decisive in reducing the risk of mudslides. Recognising the critical role of the forest, the municipality identified the need to enhance its future resilience by, for example, improving humus formation and creating a better microclimate to increase its retention capacity. Six years later, the local council, in close cooperation with stakeholders and citizens, committed to becoming an “appointing partner of protective forest communities”. The main objective was to create a climate-resilient protective forest through sustainable forest management. The aim was to establish a mixed forest, where a favourable microclimate would ensure the optimal conditions for long-term resilience.

When sustainable forest management in Wildermieming began, local engagement and inclusion were important elements. Thus, the municipality involved citizens, and the tourism association, and asked for the support of external partners. The municipality established an alpine park intending to connect the community more closely with nature, the landscape and the protective forest in Wildermieming. In addition, cooperation with citizens initiated a shift toward a fossil-free heating sector based on sustainable forest management in the municipality. For over two decades, the forest supervisor has been transforming the publicly owned forest into a climate-fit forest.

A sustainable forest management approach

In sustainable forest management, mixed forest “islands” give nature room to develop and spread. However, planting alone is not enough. Creating a Climate-Smart Mountain Forest requires actively rejuvenating small areas and reforesting with site-specific tree species. The measures allow forest regeneration after small-scale logging and individual trees to grow. By applying this management approach biomass, such as branches, twigs and needles remain in the forest to accumulate humus, improve the microclimate and promote biodiversity. Still, maintenance and thinning are important elements of the management approach.

The concept and development of the individual forest islands depend on the site-specific conditions. Generally, the plantings count around 30 trees in a mixed tree island and one tree usually grows for 100 years as depicted in Figure 2. New trees germinate around the oldest tree through natural regeneration (seed dispersal). The species selection is important and is based on the Tyrolean Forest Type Map, specifically for Tyrol, providing information on tree species adapted to the respective location. For this process to be successful under the existing climatic and socio-economic conditions, responsible forest supervisors must fence the mixed forest islands to prevent wild animals from damaging young trees.

Structural challenges for sustainable forest management

Compared to most cases in Tyrol, where forests have fragmented ownership, the municipality of Wildermieming owns the protective forest. Fragmented ownership structures can pose a great challenge in reaching out to forest owners. Extreme conditions make it difficult and expensive to transform protection forests into Climate-Smart Mountain Forests as yields cannot cover the costs. In addition, wildlife grazing slows down the reforestation process in the region and poses a challenge to converting the forest into a resilient ecosystem. Reforestation and the transformation into a Climate-Smart Mountain Forest is therefore mainly carried out within the framework of publicly subsidised projects.

The Climate-Smart Tyrolean Mountain Forest: Awareness raising and capacity building for upscaling

Forest Division launched “The Climate-Smart Tyrolean Mountain Forest” project in 2019. The project offers sponsorship for mixed forest islands based on the sustainable forest management principle applied in Wildermieming. Establishing mixed forest islands and raising awareness about the importance of protective forests for climate change adaptation are key elements of the capacity-building efforts within and beyond the region. Alongside these initiatives, the project focuses on awareness raising and capacity building for forest owners and supervisors, while enabling sponsorship opportunities for mixed forest islands. With strong support from regional organisations and companies, sponsorship of Climate-Smart Tyrolean Mountain Forest Islands enabled the reforestation of more than 5,900 plants by 2020. The positive trend towards establishing Climate-Smart Mountain Forests in Tyrol is continuing throughout the region. Where climate change poses a challenge to forest monocultures and the forest industry as such, sustainable forest management creates new opportunities to develop innovative concepts, fostering climate resilience and biodiversity.

Summary

Protective Forests play an important role in protecting settlements and socio-economic activities in Tyrol’s alpine valleys. Tyrolean forestry has relied on spruce for its economic viability and rapid growth. However, climate change is putting the protective forest, including the spruce under pressure. A sustainable management approach forms the basis for developing a “Climate-Smart Mountain Forest” in the Tyrolean municipality Wildermieming and the regional project "Climate-Smart Tyrolean Mountain Forest" is an important contribution to the resilience of the Tyrolean protection forest. This management model not only contributes to achieving climate-resilient forests and protecting communities but also supports new regional cooperation models.

Further Information

This adaptation story was created in collaboration with the regional Tyrolean partners and written as part of the Invest4Nature project.

The Economics of Nature-based Solutions (Invest4Nature) project is an EU Horizon-funded project that contributes to creating a market for nature-based solutions.

This project has been co-funded by the European Union under grant agreement 101061083.

Contact

Organisation: Klimabündnis Tirol, Invest4Nature

E-Mail: sigrid.mourits-andersen@klimabuendnis.at

Klimafitter Bergwald Tirol

Name: DI K. Ziegner

Organisation: Tyrolean Regional Government Forest Division, Invest4Nature contributor

E-Mail: kurt.ziegner@tirol.gv.at

Keywords

Climate Impacts

Extreme Temperatures, Ice and Snow, Flooding, Storms

Adaptation Sectors

Forestry, Biodiversity, Mountain areas

Key Community Systems

Ecosystems and Nature Based Solutions, Water Management, Land-use and Food Systems

Countries

Austria

Funding Programme

National Funding

Disclaimer
The contents and links to third-party items on this Mission webpage are developed by the MIP4Adapt team led by Ricardo, under contract CINEA/2022/OP/0013/SI2.884597 funded by the European Union and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union, CINEA, or those of the European Environment Agency (EEA) as host of the Climate-ADAPT Platform. Neither the European Union nor CINEA nor the EEA accepts responsibility or liability arising out of or in connection with the information on these pages.

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