Report by Michal Pástor, National Forest Centre (Slovakia)
On 3rd October 2019, on behalf of the Minister of Agriculture in Hungary Dr. István Nagy, was organized international conference on “Afforestation in a changing climate” in Budapest (Hungary). The aim of the conference was to share experiences on afforestation in Central and South-Eastern Europe. The conference provided an opportunity for the inter-sectoral exchange of knowledge and practical skills between different representatives from Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Romania, Hungary, Austria, Algeria and other institutions such as FAO, European Comission DG AGRI or European Forest Nursery Association.
Central and South-Eastern Europe represent the vulnerable region, where raising temperatures, as projected in climate scenarios, threaten forests indirectly. If the climate changes and it exceeds the tolerance level of trees, trees suffer and eventually die out.
Nature-oriented forest management and biodiversity protection in the remaining forests will be crucial for future sustainable development. Adaptation strategies are necessary to preserve the present diversity of forests and to use them sustainably in a changing climate. Therefore appropriate agroforestry practices can help to solve current problems in agriculture and forestry sector.
Michal Pástor (National Forest Center, Slovakia) gave a presentation titled „Contribution of agroforestry to landscape resilience“ reporting the justness of agroforestry implementation in Central Europe. He also presented current situation and work on agroforestry in Slovakia.
Several other speakers have expressed the belief that agroforestry is one of the ways to successfully adapt and mitigate to climate change and to prevent extreme natural events.