Climate Research Forest

OMV is supporting the climate-research forest of the Austrian Research Center for Forests (BFW) in the Lower Austrian district of Matzen-Raggendorf, a research project that will run to 2030. BFW will plant the research forest in the east of Lower Austria, after which the forest will be cultivated, managed and studied. From 2021, the climate-research forest will be open to the public for recreational purposes and a forest nature trail will invite visitors to find out more about nature and the importance of woodland. In Austria, we continued establishing a Climate Research Forest in 2020. Since 2019, a total of 23 different tree species have already been planted on around five hectares in Matzen-Raggendorf in Lower Austria. In 2020, a total of 4,800 seedlings were planted and tended, and the last planting will be finalized in spring 2021. This forest is also a subject of research: climate-relevant data collection has already started in order to evaluate the diverse functions of forests (e.g., carbon storage, biodiversity support). The research goal of this project is to find tree species and combinations of tree species that can grow well even in areas undergoing climate change and sustainably maintain forest functions.