IN2WOOD Mentoring: A successful cooperation in afforestation - August 2011

Institutions and companies from North-Rhine Westphalia, Serbia and Austria work together in an IN2WOOD pilot project for the recultivation and reforestation of industrial wasteland.

Now, seven months later, a fourth meeting took place, again in Serbia. The opening meeting at the Faculty of Forestry of the University of Belgrade started with the good news that another partner could be gained for the project: In addition to the mining basin Hugo in North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany and Kolubara in Serbia, a third mining basin – Kostolac, Serbia – will participate in the project. With this new partner the project cooperation could be expanded successfully, which will contribute in a larger area for afforestation and recultivation and concomitant in a larger area for research activities.

The main target of the conference was to discuss the details for the first mutual seeding-phase in the pilot project. Together, the multitude of involved partners from the forest administration, mining companies and research institutes from Serbia, Austria and Germany talked about crucial project conditions for the next important project step like planted three species, number of seedlings, the planting system and the size of the sample plots. Conditions of the soils and the climate at the different planting areas have to be taken into account as well as the future usage e.g. as short rotation plantations for biomass production. In this project phase the IN2WOOD project leaders managed the important project step to get all participants round the table for a common discussion.  

During a field visit in Kolubara and Kostolac, the participants gained insight into the conditions on site. The mining basin Kolubara provides 40 years of experience in reforestation on 1197 ha of reforested area. Due to new policies the whole environmental protection of Kolubara has been modernized from 2002 to 2010 to improve the preservation of the environment, which includes a sustainable recultivation of large areas of degraded landscapes. Kostolac offers a very similar picture as Kolubara: wasteland and disposals of mining basins next to a nursery and forest stands on ash infertile soils as a result of the reforestation efforts.

For the conclusion of a very successful IN2WOOD meeting the participants got together for another discussion to exchange their impressions and knowledge and to define their project tasks to implement the next steps in the pilot project. Together they plan to start the first planting phase in spring 2012: A mutual activity of the three participating mining basins using the same planting methods, the same tree species and the same size of the sample plot providing for a comparison of the progress and the achieved results. The whole process and the best choice for seedling is conducted in collaboration with Dr. Kurt Ramskogler, Executive Manager from the Austrian company Lieco (www.lieco.at), who delivers all the necessary seedlings. Supporting activities in research are provided by the participating institutions from Germany and Serbia and the Faculty of Forestry from the University of Belgrade, which offers to involve students in the project for further scientifical monitoring and support.

Based on this success the pilot project can be seen as a starting point for future cooperation, e.g. a following project on urban forestry and education combined with afforestation in the mining basins.

Participants:

Top Row (from left): Vukan Lavadinović, Faculty of Forestry, University of Belgrade; Christof Hartmann IN2WOOD, Landesbetrieb Wald und Holz NRW; Meike Steimann, IN2WOOD- Information Center for Renewable Energy; Volker Holtkämper, Department of Wood Based Industry, State Enterprise for Forestry and Timber North-Rhine Westphalia; Prof. Dr. Milan Medarević, Dean of the Faculty of Forestry, University of Belgrade; Aleksandar Vasiljević, Executive director of Sector for Technological development, State Enterprise “Srbijašume“; Dr Kurt Ramskogler, LIECO and Liechtenstein Energy; Dr Christian Brawenz, Attaché for Agriculture, Forestry and Environment, Austrian Embassy

Bottom Row (from left): Reinhart Hassel, Regional Forest Office Ruhr Area, State Enterprise for Forestry and Timber North-Rhine Westphalia; Dr Vera Lavadinović, Dr Milorad Veselinović and  Dr Dragana Drazić, IN2WOOD network partner, Institute of Forestry Belgrade