Project Forest Pioneer
Challenges of forest management in Luxembourg. Systems considerations and citizen science to assess and promote regenerative practices.
Project Forest Pioneer
Luxembourg is rich in forests. At 92,000 hectares, they make up more than a third of the territory. They play a central role in ensuring environmental and human health, by providing clean air and water, and a home to many diverse species. Nevertheless, our forests are under increasing pressure. In 2022, a government inventory shows that only 15% of the trees surveyed in Luxembourg show no damage, almost 23% are slightly damaged and around 62% are severely damaged or dead. The effects of climate, economic, technological and environmental change raise further uncertainties on the future of forest health. Forest regeneration in times of accelerating global and local change may require human intervention. Whilst we all depend on forests and their central role in the earth’s life support system, a core challenge for the future of Luxembourg’s forests is that over half of Luxembourg’s forest is privately owned, and many owners can’t dedicate the necessary time and resources to forest regeneration.
The Forest Pioneer project contributes to developing structures, spaces, processes, tools and approaches for social learning about sustainable engagement with forests in collaboration with a wide range of actors. We engage with policy makers, forest owners, NGOs, and schools. The main aim of this project is to develop the fundaments of an innovative knowledge system that integrates remote sensing with citizen science, for participatory collection and evaluation of data on forest health and interactions between forests and humans, in private and public forests. The underlying concepts and methods consider forests as complex systems, in which ecological, social and technological factors determine each other, and forest health is an emergent property of their interactions.
The Forest Pioneer team is composed of a diverse group of experts committed to co-creating sustainable forest futures. Our core members include Hamid Asadi, Sophie Zuang, Associate Prof. Ariane König, Prof. Félicia Norma Rebecca Teferle, and Dr. Addisu Hunegnaw.
One present focus is the co-design of the citizen science approach – first modules for which are now publicly accessible for testing and feedback.
Join-in !
If you are interested in learning more about forests and what you can do to direct attention to the need for forest regenereation --- feel free to complete the three questionnaires below on your next forest walk.
Each questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes – if you don’t have time for all, even just one is helpful for us. We hope you will find fun in observing and exploring forest with fresh eyes with the question prompts in the links. We provide a guide with additional infomration materials to determine tree species and their health in the link below.
When back home you can then address the remaining questionnaires that present a survey on your ‘Nature Connectedness’ and the last questionnaire that allows to provide your feedback on all four previous questionnaires and the learning experience as a whole.
We welcome your feedback on this first prototype of contents by 1 August 2025.
Institution type/carrier
Research facility
Institution-Name
University of Luxembourg
How is your initiative financed?
University of Luxembourg Audacity Programm
Are there any additional partners or funders connected to your initiative?
ANF
Participation opportunities
Pupils, forest professionals, forest owners, citizens
What’s needed
Engaged citizen Part time volunteers Expertise/knowledgeObjectives
A mobile APP for data collection by various committed stakeholder groups. The APP will be developed in collaboration with authorities, forest managers, private forest owners, scientific experts, NGOs and schools. This application is being jointly developed to facilitate routine data collection for educational, research and official purposes and to be used in guided tours and organised data collection campaigns.
Remote sensing with drones can assess the extent and condition of ecosystems, generates spatially coherent data and enables species differentiation. Forest Pioneer will focus on the identification of individual trees, combining advanced deep learning algorithms with LiDAR and hyperspectral imaging (HSI) sensors. This technology will enable precise mapping of tree species, sizes, above-ground biomass, carbon density and pest infestation, providing important insights for forest health monitoring.
An integrated web platform to make the jointly produced and official data accessible to the various stakeholder groups in a meaningful way. This can be achieved by developing different web portals as entry points for each stakeholder group with customised presentations of data and explanations. A link to other relevant levels of the geoportail is being examined.
Involve stakeholders such as private forest owners, authorities and forest managers, scientific experts, non-governmental organisations, teachers and students in the co-design of monitoring tools. This promotes democratic decision-making in forest restoration and management and enables different stakeholders to make meaningful contributions.
Impact
Innovative aspects - a systemic perspective on forests: The Forest Pioneer project proposes to develop a first prototype for an innovative platform and an associated APP to engage different concerned stakeholder groups, including private forest owners, in data collection and meaning-making on forest-human interactions. The approach will take a systemic approach, emphasising that forest health and human health are inextricably linked through a wide range of ecosystem services. By integrating different perspectives through a structured co-design methodology, the project identifies key knowledge-sharing opportunities to address the challenges of collaborative forest management. By viewing forests as a complex socio-ecological system, the project improves environmental literacy and promotes a transformative approach to people's interaction with forests and the ecological environment.
Target audience
Forest owners
Communities
ANF
Foresters
Environmental organisations
Pupils
Citizens
Challenges and learning successes
The future of Luxembourg's forests remains uncertain, particularly due to the unpredictable effects of the polycrisis, including the highly uncertain impact of climate change on the composition and resilience of forests. The role of science in forest management decision-making is changing. With accelerating change in ecological, climatic and social dimensions that affect different sites very differently, models are losing their predictive power. that have inherent limitations and cannot fully capture complex ecological interactions and site-specific variables. Given the complexity of climate change, traditional forestry methods for determining allowable harvest rates are also proving inadequate and need to be revised.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Quality Education Climate Action Life on Land Partnerships to achieve the goalSustainability Targets
- Quality Education
- Climate Action
- Life on Land
- Partnerships to achieve the goal
Name of Organization
- Universität Luxemburg
- sustainability@uni.lu
Address & geo, Contact person
- University of Luxembourg, Kirchberg Campus
- Rue Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi 6
- 1359 Luxembourg
- Sophie Zuang
- sophie.zuang@uni.lu
