The miracle forest and why we need to protect it

Interview with Robert Pröll, farmer & ranger at Kalkalpen National Park (“Limestone Alps National Park”).

The forest ecosystem is not only an important carbon store, but also a habitat for a variety of plants and creatures. In this interview, Robert Pröll, farmer, national park ranger, and speaker at this year’s sustainability conference, explains why we need to protect the “miracle of the forest” more than ever in the fight against the climate crisis.

Your presentation at the sustainability conference is entitled “Wunderwald”, i.e. magical forest. What do you find fascinating about the forest ecosystem?

Robert Pröll: What fascinates me most is that nothing is thrown away in the forest ecosystem. Everything is reused there, whether it’s the dead wood on the ground that stores water or the fallen tree on which new trees grow and thus give new life. Everything runs in a self-regulating cycle. The forest produces a wonderful climate for us. I think everyone knows this: how cool and pleasant the climate is as soon as you enter the forest, while nature outside is overheated.

What motivated you to use your work in the national park to teach people the proper treatment of our forests?

It is important to me that we learn to appreciate our forests and nature in general more again. Only those who appreciate their environment will protect it. As a ranger in the national park, I can explain my ecological concerns to people on our tours. In doing so, children are particularly important to me. Anyone who learns as a child how valuable and important it is to treat nature with care will not forget it as a grown-up. For me, nature-loving children are the conservationists of the future.

Working in the national park is of course only one part of my daily life. I spend most of my time running my small organic farm. Here, it is important to me to go beyond the organic concept. I have always been convinced that our actions must be in alignment with the environment and nature.

About the person

Robert Pröll is a mechanical engineer, environmental technician, European energy manager, skilled agricultural worker, national park ranger and Upper Austrian nature guard. He also runs a very ecologically driven smallholding with an old breed of livestock in Upper Austria.

The climate crisis is omnipresent. How can the forest help us to cope with the effects?

The forest is an enormously important carbon store that breaks down and stores CO2 and can therefore mitigate the greenhouse effect. Many of us only think of the forest in terms of trees and wood growing up into the sky. However, we should not only look upwards, but also downwards. Just to make this clear: a conventional, managed spruce forest covers an area of one hectare and contains around 350m³ of solid cubic metres of wood. Although there are fewer trees in a natural primeval forest, it contains over 1,200m³ of solid cubic metres of wood on the same area – more than three times as much.

What makes the difference is the natural deadwood on the forest floor, which is an enormously important factor, not only as a carbon store, but also as a habitat for many microorganisms. This is exactly why it is important to intervene as little as possible and leave this deadwood in the forest. A degraded and damaged forest floor lacks biodiversity, and it is very difficult to restore it. If we lose natural forests, we also lose a large and important carbon store and thus an ally in the fight against the climate crisis.

What could more sustainable forestry look like?

For a sustainable use, the forest must be managed as ecologically and naturally as possible, and as much deadwood as possible must be left in the forest. We have to move towards establishing more near-natural forests. At the same time, we will also have to accept that we can no longer work as economically as we do now.

What should such an ecological forest look like? Spruce monocultures, as we often find them, are more susceptible to beetle infestation and thus to wind events. You can therefore imagine that such monocultures have little future. It is also important to ensure a high degree of diversity in the structure of the forest and to allow as much nature as possible into the forest and leave it there. However, the top priority should be to ensure that we do not lose any more forests, as we need the biomass and oxygen they provide and cannot do without this carbon store.

Speaking of biodiversity: how clearly do you notice the decline in biodiversity and what problems do you think we are facing?

Biodiversity is being lost at a breath-taking rate. At the same time, in order to adapt to the new conditions brought about by climate change, we need the broadest possible biodiversity. With a broad biodiversity, it is more likely for certain species to be able to adapt to the new conditions and thus help us to cope with the consequences of climate change. However, as biodiversity continues to dwindle at an increasing rate, this is starting to look difficult.

It is therefore important to at least preserve remnant forests from which further development is possible. A case in point: last year, specimens of the red-necked dusky beetle were found in the Kalkalpen National Park. This is one of the rarest beetle species in Europe. In Austria, the last sighting of a specimen was 40 years ago, and the beetle had been lost in the region for 119 years. In the national park we can simply guarantee the conditions to find a large variety of species and that is why such unspoilt areas are so important.

Final question: what can each of us do to contribute to the protection of the forests?

The most important thing that everyone can do to contribute is to understand how important the forest ecosystem is for us and to value it accordingly and treat it carefully. Chipboard, paper – these are things that are destroying our forests. We can consume these things, but we should be careful about how much of them we consume and under what circumstances. A thoughtful approach to this issue is required.

Perhaps a look at the big picture will also help us here: whether it’s the hundreds of years old beech tree in the forest, the little beetle in the leaves, or us humans like you and me – we are all made up of the same building blocks: carbon, hydrogen, magnesium, sulphur, etc. And we all basically run through the same cycle – we are built up and then broken down again, then built up again and then broken down again. So we are, so to speak, built in the same way as nature, which is why we should live in harmony with it.

Thank you very much indeed for the interview!