The MigFoRest project partners have preselected the forest areas where assisted migration will be proposed for deployment. The next step will be to define the exact boundaries of the planting sites that will make up the pilot territories within those proposed areas. Talks are ongoing with public and private forest owners eager to take part in the project.
Let us remind that the objective of MigFoRest is to plant at least 100,000 trees in total in those pilot territories.
As shown on the map above, the preselected forest areas are:
- For Belgium:
o Ardenne Méridionale
o Condroz
o Kempen
- For France:
o Forêt de Compiègne (Oise)
o Forêt domaniale de Petite Charnie (Sarthe)
- For Germany:
o Schwäbisch-Fränkischer Wald (Baden-Württemberg)
o Oberrheingraben (Baden-Württemberg)
Within those proposed forest areas, planting sites will be selected based on three criteria:
· Low functional diversity of the existing site. In other words, MigFoRest will primarily target less diversified plots with the aim to increase the local functional diversity.
· High species vulnerability of the existing site. Put differently, MigFoRest will focus on sites with species identified as being more vulnerable to climate change with the aim to increase the overall resilience of the plots.
· High connectivity of the existing site, so that “migrated” new species/provenances that are supposed to be more resistant can positively influence forest resilience in the close neighbourhood.
