7th Forum Carpaticum: Carpathian Futures – Critical Transitions, 25–29 September 2023, Kraków, Poland
13 years after the first Forum Carpaticum, the conference was held again in Kraków (Poland). The conference gathered over 120 scientists, practitioners, and stakeholders who shared the latest research and discussed challenges and possible ways to adapt to current environmental, economic and socio-political crises in the Carpathian region.
In this context particularly important was the session on Ukraine, which included two panel discussions: “Understanding Uncertainties and Needs for Resilience and Post-war Recovery: Voices from the Ukrainian Carpathians” and “Future of the Carpathians in a Time of Critical Transition: Exploring Triggers for Sustainability in the Post-War Era”.
The conference included sessions on:
- water resources and management
- forests, their management, and governance
- natural hazards and risks
- climate change
- land use and land cover change
- conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity
- human-wildlife coexistence
- integrated landscape management and governance for better development policy
- cultural heritage and traditional knowledge
- sustainable tourism
- participatory research, multi-actor dialogues, and knowledge co-production
- education for sustainable development
- plastic in the mountains
and two workshops: Interreg Central Europe Central Mountains with young students on good governance models and participation processes in Alpine-Carpathian areas and workshops on marteloscopes titled “Close-to-Nature Silviculture (CTNS) and Digitalization for Sustainable Forest Management”.