SUPERVISOR: Georg GRATZER

PROJECT ASSIGNED TO: Martina PERZL

Austrian forests are experiencing severe climate change impacts, directly through the shifts of abiotic conditions and habitat suitability as well as indirectly through the increased frequency and intensity of disturbances such as wind throws, droughts, and bark beetle outbreaks. Successful restoration of the affected areas will require afforestation or natural recruitment, both of which depend on the quality and quantity of seed production by climate-resilient tree species. For reforestation using natural or artificial regeneration, available seed quantities and seed quality are decisive. However, climate change not only increases the
demand for seeds, but also affects the seed quality negatively: earlier flowering of trees may lead to temporal decoupling of pollinators and increases the risk of frost damage. Pollen, seed production, and viability are negatively affected by temperature and precipitation extreme and pollen deficiency can reduce seed yields and increase hollow seed content. In recent years, decreasing germination percentages or failed harvests have been increasingly observed in Austria. Seed shortage is therefore recognized as a serious constraint for reforestation projects in Austria.

Still, the majority of Austrian forest properties continue to belong to farmers. Therefore, smallholder farmers could play an essential role in ensuring the provisioning of high-quality seeds and adaptable seeds for seed production in seed orchards and forest
stands selected for tree seed production.

Smallholder farmers themselves face multiple challenges and crises these days in Austria. E.g. Two-thirds of the forest owners in Austria are classified as smallholder forest owners and mostly practice rural forestry, particularly in mountain regions. Despite the more difficult production conditions in such regions, smallholder mountain forestry achieves higher hourly wages than agricultural production. This important role in the resilience of mountain forest farming is at stake when forests are affected by disturbances that can affect forest areas and the annual income of peasant forestry is threatened for an entire rotation period (over 100 years in mountainous regions).

Due to these challenges the PhD project aims to identify social, economic, and ecological factors that are enabling or hindering present and future tree seed production on a farm level, which must then be considered in examining the decision-making processes of farmer forest owners related to tree seed production. Here the focus is on conducting an in-depth study by interviewing farmers and forest owners as well as stakeholders who represent relevant societal actors and/or are representatives of institutions related to the tree seed market and/or in the context of the agricultural and forestry system in Austria stand.

Furthermore, the project seeks to explore the potential of tree seed production to be framed as an agricultural niche innovation, that goes along with the question of if and how can tree seed production contribute to the smallholder forest farmers’ livelihoods in Austria.