Conference Agenda

Martin Jentzen is a Swedish forest engineer. He gained first practical experience in conventional Swedish forestry through work as wood purchaser at the pulp industry. Since the last 15 years then, he has worked with establishment of close to nature forestry practices. The work has consisted of both practical management planning, but also educational work in basic forest ecology and forestry practices mainly focused on the sector of private forest owners. At the panel, Martin Jentzen will describe how initiative, finances and control have been transferred from individual forest owners to industrial interests in Fennoscandia. The composition of the landscape has changed so that today we see an increasing lack of species and substrate linked to older natural forests with long forest continuity. An important strategy to deal with the lack of substrates and habitats for biodiversity is to increase the proportion of strictly protected forest land. But it is at least as important to raise the overall ecological quality of the cultivated areas at the same time, and for that a radical change in forestry practice is required

Augustyn Mikos is a Forest Policy Expert at the Association Workshop for All Beings, a Polish NGO involved in protecting Białowieża Forest - the best preserved temperate lowland forest complex in Europe. He co-authored several reports on forest management in Poland, including two analyzing the breaches of EU environmental legislation during logging in Białowieża Forest. In the panel, he will outline threats to this forest complex that have emerged in recent years including clearcutting of vast swaths of old-growth forest stands, the construction of a barrier on the Polish-Belarusian border, and plans to modify the zoning of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Białowieża Forest. On the other hand, he will discuss the perspective of placing the entire area of the Białowieża Forest under effective protection, which, thanks to the unprecedented support of Polish society towards forest conservation, is closer than at any time in the past 100 years of efforts to preserve this invaluable forest complex.

Gabriel Paun is an ecologist advocating for strict protection of primary forests in Romania in the context of biodiversity preservation and climate change mitigation. His work covers all necessary strategies and tactics to achieve this objective: lobby, scientific research, media work, non-violent direct action and litigation. In the panel he will walk the audience through the current situation in Romania and hurdles that he has to overcome in his work, the biggest one being bankrupt public polices and rotten mentalities. He is keen to start a vivid conversation with the public in search of ideas and support for a joint European wide work to preserve that last remaining primary forests.

Matthias Schickhhofer (1967) is an Austrian (Vienna) based strategy / campaign consultant, conservationist, photographer, book author, nature tourism developer.

He worked for 17 years with Greenpeace CEE and Greenpeace International and has been providing campaign and project consultancy support to various NGOs since 2008.

In cooperation with Euronatur, Agent Green (Romania) and the Rottenburg University of Applied Forest Sciences (Germany), he has been contributing to the mapping of primary forests in Romania - and to the protection of several thousand hectares of these forests.

He has planned and co-developed several projects to promote nature tourism as an alternative income source to the destructive exploitation of natural resources (Iseltrail, Bärentrail, initiative in Romania). As a photographer and author, he has published several books on primary forests and wilderness in Europe.

In the panel discussion, he will talk about his experiences with efforts to protect primary and old-growth forests (in EU) and the conflicts and hurdles he has encountered in this context.

Thomas Waitz is a member of the European Parliament for the Austrian Greens and co-chair of the European Green Party. In his political work, he focuses on sustainable agriculture, healthy food and climate protection, the Animal Transport Directive's reform, and a strong foreign and peace policy, especially regarding relations with the Western Balkan Region. He is an organic farmer, forester and beekeeper. In his contribution he will focus on the EU Forest Strategy for 2030 and outline the way forward for Europe’s primary forests