Blas Mola
Principal Investigator
Summary
My research focuses on topics related to the environmental, economic and social dimension of biomass production. I have participated in a number of national and international projects linked to these research lines, often in the Nordic area. As a lecturer, I have been responsible for several courses oriented to graduate and PhD students, particularly related to statistical and research methods, supply and energy use of lignocellulosic biomass and bioenergy markets and policies, among others.
Profile
Researcher info
Institution
University of Eastern Finland
Department/faculty
School of Forest Sciences
Contact information
blas.mola@uef.fi
+358 50 442 2974
Keywords
agriculture bioenergy biomass forest models forestry governance plantations
Research projects
The doctoral programme on sustainable management of forest resources is funded by the Chinese Scholarship Council, for the period (2022-2024). The programme will provide full funding for doctoral positions to 3 - 6 students from the North West Agriculture & Forest University in Yangling (China), to perform a doctoral degree at the School of Forest Sciences of the University of Eastern Finland. The main goals are to enable Chinese scholars from NWAFU to visit UEF, foster opportunities for students to publish research papers in high-profile refereed journals and also to receive industrial experience in companies and research institutions and foster opportunities for faculty to collaborate in both basic and applied research.
Team
Guangzhe Liu
The designation of protected areas and of regions of special conservation interest has gained due relevance across the globe, particularly in the past three decades. Territories covered by protected areas are steadily expanding. Within this framework, numerous international strategies define the importance of Capacity Building and Training as the key challenge of the 21st century. The Training Masters in Ecosystem Services Management in Protected Areas (ECOSERVE) aims at developing an innovative practice-oriented MSc programme according to Bologna criteria in the field of protected areas management, and at meeting sustainable development and labour market needs through networking activities. ECOSERVE will be a qualitatively new MSc programme implemented in higher education institutions of the Russian Federation and Mongolia, strengthening their educational partnership with non-academic partners in the field of protected areas management and responding to demands for professionals of public services, private service providers and tourism businesses. It will contribute to adapt land management strategies to the actual changing natural drivers, such as climate, in alignment with global Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The program knowledge base, materials and courses in Russian, Mongolian and English, will be continuously updated and disseminated through a network of resources centres of protected areas in Partner country HEIs, promoting inter-regional cooperation in environmental protection, nature and biodiversity conservation issues, and management.
Team
Cristina Vega
Decision Support for the Supply of Ecosystem Services under Global Change (DecisionES) is a Marie Curie Horizon 2020 - Research and Innovation Framework Programme (2021-2025). Pressures on forest ecosystems are very likely to increase as a consequence of socioeconomic and demographic trends. A growing population will demand more products (e.g., wood) to be extracted from forest ecosystems. At the same time, these harvesting activities and their interactions with global change drivers will impact the sustainability of the supply of a wider range of non-provisioning services (e.g., wildfire protection, water, and biodiversity). The integrity of ecosystems must be safeguarded when developing harvesting activities, and yet this is further complicated by the occurrence of natural disturbances such as wildfires and droughts, etc. New decision support approaches are needed that can cope with this challenge. European and the American experiences with the development and application of decision support approaches for the provision of ecosystem services (ESs), offer a solid base for continued improvement in the efficiency and effectiveness of forest management in the context of global change (e.g., responding to changes in demographics, socioeconomics, and climatic conditions). This provided the rationale for a project that will help to strengthen research collaboration through active networking and staff exchange between 8 European organizations and 10 American organizations that are leaders in these fields. This project will build from the top-level multidisciplinary expertise (wildfire ecology and management, wildfire behaviour simulation, hydrology, process-based modelling, biodiversity, wildlife management, ecology, water services, operations research, management science, stakeholder engagement, forest ecosystem management planning methods, supply chain management methods and decision support systems) in these organizations to address the integration of operational, tactical and strategic forest ecosystem management planning levels and potentiate the supply of ecosystem services at various spatial and temporal scales.
Team
Jordi García-Gozalo