Attitudes towards assisted migration across Europe: an experimental approach

Assisted migration (AM), the translocation of forest tree species and provenances as a climate change adaptation strategy, is being implemented in some European countries, while others are against it, which currently impedes the development of coordinated Europe-wide research and policy. By broadly surveying foresters and forest scientists, we will map the European landscape of attitudes towards AM and identify the role of country-specific attributes, including legislation, subject-specific experiences, knowledge, and awareness.

In parallel, we will monitor the attitudes towards AM of participants in the trials of MyGardenOfTrees using yearly questionnaires. Participants are performing an AM experiment, thereby we will be able to relate potential attitude shifts to the success or failure of foreign provenances. We will assess the role of information flow and trust between scientists and practitioners and develop recommendations for communicating AM strategies at a European scale.