As Ireland concludes its term as Chair of the Integrate Network, this address offers a moment to reflect on the past year and the shared progress made in advancing integrative forest management across Europe. Drawing on the experience of forest owners, the value of peer learning, and the use of practical tools to turn knowledge into action, the Chairs share key insights and priorities from 2025. In the letter below, readers are invited to explore these reflections and the lessons that can help guide Integrate’s work as the chairmanship passes to Hungary in 2026.
Dear Friends of the Integrate Network,
Ireland’s time as Chair of the Integrate Network has offered us a valuable opportunity to reflect on how collaboration, shared learning, and open dialogue can support the wider adoption of integrative forest management across Europe.
Ireland took the chair of the Network following from Austria’s excellent work in 2024 where we started to focus on private forest owner’s experience. This focus has continued this year where we invited private forest owners into the Network to join an open dialogue with researchers, educators, practitioners, and policy makers.
This approach was reflected in the webinar “After the Storm: Pathways to forest recovery and restoration in Ireland and beyond” organised in June to discuss storm Éowyn’s impact on Irish forests and featuring a forest owner as keynote speaker. This was also central to the 11th Integrate Network Annual Meeting in Dublin organised in October, where we invited a number of leading forest owners involved in close to nature management to bring their prospectives, thoughts, aspirations, achievements, and challenges forward and share the discussion space with policy actors, researchers, practitioners, and educators. Over 4 days, we took an interactive approach to encourage exchange including a World Café workshop that focused on successes and challenges in Integrative Forest Management (IFM) practices and a practical group exercise in forest testing the Index of Biodiversity for Potential (IBP) survey protocol.
Through the experiences of Irish forest owners, we have seen during the year how practical engagement in the forest can foster a deeper understanding of the balance between wood production, biodiversity conservation, recreation, and long-term sustainability.
During our time as Chairs, we also enjoyed representing the Network to many national and European events with relevance to the promotion of integrative forest management such as the SUPERB expert workshop: “bridging people and policy in forest restoration initiatives” in Switzerland, ProSilva Ireland 25 year anniversary conference , ProSilva Europe annual meeting, in Sardinia, Italy and the Integrate Workshop in Zürich on “ Increasing biodiversity to promote adaptation and resilience of European forests by using close to nature forestry”.
As we conclude our term, Ireland hopes that our reflections inspire member countries to further promote integrative forest management by:
- valuing the experience and perspective of forest owners,
- supporting knowledge exchange through field days, networks, and peer learning,
- and applying practical tools like the IBP to build capacity and drive positive change.
With continued cooperation, the Integrate Network can help ensure that European forests remain productive, resilient, and rich in biodiversity for generations to come.
We now look forward to contributing to the Integrate Network’s further development under the Hungarian Chairmanship in 2026.
Finally, we would like to thank the Integrate Network Secretariat for their continued support during 2025 and to wish our friends and colleagues in the Network a Happy New Year!
Dermot Dunphy (Department of Agriculture and Jonathan Spazzi – Integrate Network Co-Chairs 2025
Want to read more updates from the Integrate Network? Read our Issue 9 – December 2025 Newsletter.