About the Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group

The Forest Ecology and Forest Management Chair Group (FEM) is part of Wageningen University & Research and cooperates with teams of Wageningen Environmental Research (Alterra).

Mission and objectives


Forests comprise the most diverse ecosystems in the world, hosting a substantial part of all living species. Forests also provide a wide variety of essential services to society, ranging from provision of natural resources such as timber, wildlife and other products, to services such as water retention, climate regulation and carbon storage. We believe that forest management is crucial to wise use of these services, while also maintaining or restoring overall ecosystem functioning. This requires a thorough understanding of the functioning of forest ecosystems, which are complex due to the large numbers of interactions and strong environmental gradients.

Based on better understanding better guidelines can be developed for management that ensure continued provision of ecosystem services.

Our mission is to contribute to this improved understanding by high-quality research in forest ecology and forest management, by capacity-building through PhD and postdoc projects, and by providing advice and raising public awareness on the wider importance of forests and forest management.

Our objectives are to contribute to understanding of forest ecosystems, and their responses to changing environmental, biotic and social conditions. This knowledge guides and supports the development of sustainable forest resource use systems.

We focus on forest ecosystems worldwide, with emphasis on Dutch forestry, European forest resources, and tropical rainforests and their conservation and restoration. For recent external collaboration on country/territory level, see our Network Map: Forest Ecology and Forest Management – Network — Research@WUR

Forest Dynamics