With the climate change, the ecological conditions for forests in the Alpine Space are fundamentally changing – with unknown effects on the forests’ essential protective, ecological, economical and social functions. Under different climate and land-use change scenarios only an adaptive management can provide the conservation of the natural heritage and the multiple functions. MANFRED bridges the gap between research and practical forest management and seeks to

• collect knowledge with regard to climate change effects on 4 main topics: forest growth and land use changes, hazards & stressors, best practices to face extreme events protection forests;
• identify hot spots with concrete need for action on the regional & local level;
• develop management strategies able to adapt to changing environmental conditions;
• contribute to the implementation of suggested adapted management strategies in cooperation with political decision makers in 4 transnational case study regions.

MANFRED is well on track in implementing its start-up activities. Specifically, we have defined the Case Study areas to be used as testing grounds and exhibit silvicultural 'good practices' in adaptation to climate change within 4 trans-national areas in the Alpine Space; Case Study observers have been contacted and MANFRED is starting to gain local media attention. The downscaling of climate change models is well on its way, and in the next period will be downscaled to the case study areas. MANFRED's project website is also up-and-running (www.manfredproject.eu).

Since MANFRED's kick-off at the beginning of October, 2009, progress has been made in the following areas: the MANFRED website--which is now functional; the initial development of the communications strategy and media outreach attempts; downscaling of climate change models to a scale appropriate for the different sub-regions within the Alpine Space; development of a list of relevant pests and diseases in forestry in the region as well as background information for developing hazard scenarios for fire, drought, storm and ozone; understanding of different definitions of extreme events across the Alpine Space in varied forest contexts. Additionally, within MANFRED we have been developing methodology for the Forest Eco-engineering Project sites (or marteloscopes) and a stakeholder engagement plan, and have also begun contacting stakeholders in case study areas and further refining the location of case study activities.

MANFRED activities are poised to continue successfully into the 3rd Project Period. Initial Case Study meetings will take place over the next 6 months in order to link MANFRED's project outputs to concrete deliverables for practitioners in these sub-regions. The first exchange of data (on climate scenarios, natural hazards and pests) among project participants has taken place, with definitions agreed-upon and challenges identified.