It is well known that forests provide a wide range of ecosystem services, including provisioning services (wood, firewood, fruits, etc.), cultural services (recreation, knowledge, etc.) and regulating services (water and climate regulation, among others). Therefore, ecosystem services include goods and services, with and without markets. Both the marketed and the non-marketed goods and services should be incorporated into forest management making processes in several ways.
Agent/Individual-based modelling (ABM, IBM) techniques have emerged as crucial tools for analysing and understanding self-organisation processes in various ecosystems as well as in social sciences. ABM/IBM is a methodology for relating the micro-level behaviour to the macro- or system-level behaviour and shares certain similarities with game theory. In combination with new methods of spatial statistics ABM/IBM have become an intriguing method for studying spatio-temporal patterns among other things.
EFI has just opened this year’s call for scientific visits for young researchers from forest research and education organisations to visit another institution. This year EFI will offer a maximum of 10 grants for Short Scientific Visits (SSV) for Early Stage Researchers from EFI Associate and Affiliate Member organisations. These visits provide a unique opportunity for interested candidates to get involved in international level forest research and research co-operation.
