Scientific studies have shown that mixed forests of silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) and European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) provide higher ecosystem services than monospecific forests. Mixed forests are known for their high resilience to climate change impacts and superior biodiversity compared to monospecific forests. Despite this superiority, the transformation from monospecific to mixed forests can meet socio-technical challenges that are manifested in dissent or even in conflicts. The integration of stakeholders and citizens plays a key role in analyzing their perceptions and views of forest transformation. Their knowledge is required to co-design and implement socially acceptable options and pathways to increase the share of mixed forests. Based on a survey in Southwest Germany, we analyzed stakeholders’ and citizens’ perceptions of ecosystem services of monospecific and mixed forests of silver fir and beech. The findings show that people believe that mixed forests provide better cultural, regulating, and supporting ecosystem services than monospecific forests. However, provisioning services were perceived as being equally or even better provided by monospecific forests. The assumed abundance of old trees and the feelings of pleasantness especially influenced the superior perception of ecosystem services provided by mixed forests. The results indicate that there is public support for the transformation of monospecific silver fir and beech forests into mixed forests in Southwest Germany.

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Recurrent droughts in southwest Germany threaten the city and community-owned forests (CCF). At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the demand for recreation in CCF of southwest Germany. We interviewed stakeholders from different interest groups to critically analyze their opinion on how the high recreation demand on CCF due to the pandemic can be ensured along with implementing climate change adaptation measures in CCF in Karlsruhe, Germany. We found that stakeholders particularly highlighted the importance of the recreational function of the CCF during the pandemic. However, the behavior of visitors was criticized by the stakeholders. We showed that demand for the recreational use of CCF conflicted with climate change adaptation measures such as sanitary and forest restoration actions, creating a dilemma among stakeholders. Therefore, enhancing citizens’ knowledge of forests’ recreation functions and the need for climate change adaptation through communication and education should be prioritized.

Increasing urbanization, climate change, and plant disease pose accumulative threats to city and community-owned forests (CCF). This requires the forest to adapt to new climatic conditions to continuously provide essential recreational functions for the urban population in the future. The COVID-19 pandemic increased the demand for CCF as a place to meet, play sports, and relax. However, our knowledge of challenges in combining climate change adaptation and the increased number of visits and demand for recreation in CCF management is yet limited. In this study, we, for the first time, interviewed 16 stakeholders from different backgrounds about their opinions on climate change adaptation (CCA) of CCF, its importance as a recreational space, and conflicts between the two fields of action that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is expected that comparing perspectives from different stakeholder groups can lead to improved reflection and strengthen the sustainable management of the CCF through knowledge-based and participative decision-making. Using semi-structured interviews and qualitative data analytics with MAXQDA software, we found that stakeholders particularly highlighted the importance of the recreational function of the CCF during the pandemic. At the same time, the behavior of visitors was criticized. We identified that functional conflicts between the need for relaxation and essential functions for CCA of the CCF have increased during the pandemic. These include other biodiversity and protective functions. The interviewees, therefore, suggested enhancing the local population's communication and education. Further, the possibility of increased visitor guidance has been discussed. It has been identified that more research and location-adjusted planning are needed to evaluate the use of non-native species for the urban forest’s climate change adaptation.

Scientific studies had shown that mixed forests of silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) and European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) provide higher ecosystem services than monospecific forests. Mixed forests are known for their high resilience to climate change impacts and superior biodiversity compared to monospecific forests. In many countries, promotion of mixed forests in forest management is becoming a government policy since they can contribute to fulfill the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nation, respectively Goal 13 and 15. However, not much is known about public perceptions on mixed forests compared to monoculture forests. Our study on ecosystem services provided by mixed and monospecific forests in southwest Germany fill this gap. Based on a survey with 520 valid responses we analyzed people's perception on 18 different supporting, cultural, regulating and provisioning ecosystem services measured by Likert scale. Stepwise regression analyses show relations between social profiles (gender, age, education, profession) and preferences on respondents' perceptions. Our findings show that people perceive that mixed forests provide better cultural, regulating and supporting ecosystem services than monospecific forests of fir and beech whereas provisioning services were perceived as being equally or better provided by monospecific forests. Significant effects towards a positive perception on ecosystem services provided by mixed forests were mainly influenced by the perceived abundance of old trees, feeling of pleasantness in mixed forests, age, profession, and education. Our findings indicate that there is a high public support for the promotion of silver fir and beech mixed forests in Southwest Germany.