Research

The restoration of peatlands is increasingly perceived as a cost-effective and efficient way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It is therefore expected that the restoration of peatland soils can make a significant contribution to achieving national emission targets. Cultivated and drained organic soils also represent a potentially significant source of emissions in Austria. However, there is currently a lack of information and analysis on the cost-effectiveness of peatland restoration measures in Austria, taking into account different restoration measures and analyzing the reasons for the differences and ranges in costs and effectiveness. Efforts must therefore be made to systematically collect data on costs and assess the factors that explain cost differences, including spatial factors. The Money4Moor research project aims to collect detailed data on restoration costs to enable a more nuanced analysis of cost differences between different spatial scales and restoration measures.

Climate change mitigation and adaptation require transformative changes at multiple scales. While local initiatives often develop innovative solutions to climate-related challenges, many remain confined to their niche environments, limiting their potential societal impact. Despite a growing amount of literature from different fields, how and under which conditions such local climate niche initiatives (LCNIs) scale out, scale up or scale deep remains under-researched. SCALE aims to improve our knowledge on the successful scaling out of LCNIs, i.e., their geographical expansion and replication in new locations, scaling up of LCNIs, i.e., the institutional embedding and integration of initiative elements at the superordinate regime level, and scaling deep of LCNIs, i.e., the transformation of local practices, beliefs, and behaviours in communities. This is accomplished through an investigation of enabling factors for scaling at the regional level as well as a detailed case study analysis of three LCNIs in different regions and their scaling potential. The primary research focus is to identify if and how social and human capital may act as enabling factors for scaling out, scaling up and scaling deep of LCNIs, building on a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods. Following a transdisciplinary research approach, participatory interventions in the case study regions aim to support the scaling process of the LCNIs and foster social and human capital. Through a cross-case integrative analysis of the LCNIs, SCALE contributes to both theoretical understanding and practical implementation of transformative change by bridging the gap between local innovation and regional adoption. We aim to advance generalizable scaling criteria for the Austrian regional transformation policy which may inform the design of future programmes for model regions.

The aim of the project is to optimize the monitoring and reporting of forest disturbance and damage in the UNECE region. Our forests are exposed to an increasing number of different threats that endanger the vitality of their ecosystems. However, healthy and vital forests are a basic prerequisite for the provision of ecosystem services and functions, for the supply of wood as a renewable resource and for the creation of green jobs. Therefore, accurate and timely information on forest disturbance and damage in the UNECE region is crucial for national, regional and global action. Information on forest disturbance and damage is collected through the FAO Global Forest Resource Assessment and regional processes such as FOREST EUROPE and the Montréal Process. However, the preliminary project (2020-2022) to analyze nationally reported data on forest disturbance and damage in the UNECE region shows data gaps and inconsistencies in reporting as well as a lack of comparability and timeliness of data. There is great potential and an urgent need to improve international reporting on forest disturbance and damage. These harmonizations and improvements are necessary to meet the requirements of sustainable forest management and appropriate forest, environmental and resource governance. This project builds on this to significantly improve the assessment of forest disturbance and damage and international reporting in this area. It is expected that the additional information generated by this project will harmonize and optimize national monitoring systems and reporting modalities for future forest disturbance and damage reporting.