The Scientific Advisory Board for Forest Policy (Wissenschaftlicher Beirat für Waldpolitik – WBW) advises and supports the Federal Government in developing the framework for the sustainable management of forests.
The members of the Advisory Board represent a number of different specialist scientific disciplines which reflect the demands that society makes of forests.
The latter include:
secure supplies of the renewable resource of timber for the timber industry and the energy sector;
the safeguarding of jobs, in particular in rural areas;
the preservation of biodiversity;
climate protection and the adaptation of forests to climate change;
the use of the forests for recreation and leisure activities; and
regard for the balance between ownership interests and social responsibility.
The Advisory Board examines the objectives and principles of national and international forest policy. It presents proposals for developing the forest-policy framework and the instruments for implementing the Federal Government's 2020 Forest Strategy. It also attempts to reconcile the different demands that society makes of forests and promotes scientific discourse on a sustainable, multifunctional management of forests. In addition to this, it discusses and assesses situations and conditions, makes suggestions if there is a need for change, and picks up on initiatives from various areas and fields of science and society. It draws up status reports and recommendations to support and advise policy makers.
Publications
The publications of the Scientific Advisory Board for Forest Policy are available in two languages:
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Bauhus (Chair of the WBW) Professor of Silviculture at the University of Freiburg
Prof. Dr. Birgit Kleinschmit (Vice Chair) Professor and Head of the Department of Geoinformation in Environmental Planning at the Berlin University of Technology
Prof. Dr. Matthias Dieter Director of the Institute of Forestry at the Thünen-Institute Hamburg
Prof. Dr. Ewald Endres Professor of Forest Law and Forest Policy at the University of Applied Sciences Weihenstephan-Triesdorf
Prof. Dr. Nina Farwig Professor of Conservation at the Philipps-University Marburg
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Annette Hafner Director of Resource-Efficient Building at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the Ruhr-University Bochum
Prof. Dr. Ralf Kätzel Head of the Department of Forest Ecology and Monitoring at the State Competence Centre for Forestry Eberswalde
Prof. Dr. Thomas Knoke Professor of Forest Management at the Technical University of Munich
Prof. Dr. Friederike Lang Professor of Soil Ecology at University of Freiburg
Dr. Marcus Lindner Head of the Resilience Program at the European Forest Institute in Bonn
Dr. Peter Meyer Head of the Department of Forest Nature Conservation at the Northwest German Forest Research Institute
Prof. Dr. Jörg Müller Professor of Animal Ecology at the University of Würzburg
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schraml Director of the Forest Research Institute Baden-Württemberg
Prof. Dr. Ute Seeling Director of the School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences HAFL of the Bern University of Applied Science
Prof. Dr. Gabriele Weber-Blaschke Professor at the Chair of Wood Science at the Technical University of Munich
Management of the Scientific Advisory Board for Forest Policy (WBW)
Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL)
Division 513
Postal adress: 11055 Berlin
Telephone: +49 / (0)30 / 18 529 - 3887
E-Mail: 513@bmel.bund.de
