The general objective of the project was “to improve the level of information, knowledge and skills of forest managers and owners in the field of CCF in order to impact their practices for the benefit of a management adapted to the challenges of climate change”. This objective was divided in 2 specific objectives: 1. To inform about CCF and demonstrate its potential and usefulness to remove the obstacles to initiate the transition to CCF and to motivate forest managers. This objective has been pursued through an extensive communication campaign on CCF and the existence of the MOOC open to everybody. 2. Provide managers/owners with the necessary tools to start CCF by creating the first massive open online course (Mooc) in CCF within the EU. This trilingual (FR, DE, EN) online training course, from the field to the learner, targeted the training of a minimum of 10.000 people.
European forests are severely suffering from climate change and its consequences. The transition to resilient forest management practices must therefore be a priority. The principles of Continuous cover forestry (CCF) meet this priority. However, CCF faces 2 major obstacles : OBSTACLE 1 : RESISTANCE TO CHANGE : CCF involves changing traditional silvicultural practices and shakes up the cultural codes of the forestry sector, which is known to be conservative. >> NEED for objective, qualitative and exhaustive INFORMATION to help people understand the benefits, principles and objectives of CCF. OBSTACLE 2 : A LACK OF SKILLS due to : - A gap between supply and demand due to the absence of basic training in CCF, the low number of learning courses, and the lack of motivation among managers in light of the scale of the problems their forests are facing - Difficulty in accessing training courses for people who are rarely professionals, with few courses offered at suitable times and filed courses rarely accessible by public transport. >> NEED for CCF training using accessible tools.