Support the Unipd "Bark beetle emergency research project" to save our forests

21.03.2024

Celebrate annually since 2012, March 21st marks the International Day of Forests. On this occasion, the University of Padua joins in raising awareness of the importance of forests to the public by relaunching the Unipd Bark Beetle Emergency Research Project.

The destruction of nearly 16 million cubic meters of forest area across northeastern Italy after the 2018 Vaia Storm drove an infestation of the native bark beetle. Naturally present in these forests, this small beetle mainly feeds on damaged and fallen spruce trees. The great availability of woody material present and recent meteorological trends have allowed the bark beetle populations to grow from an endemic to a complete infestation, which may cause more damage than Vaia Storm ever did.

As such, the DAFNAE and TESAF departments of the University of Padua have led the call for two research projects on the forest and the fight against the bark beetle infestation. The project is supported thanks to a collaboration with the communication agency AKQA s.r.l and the Treviso playing card company Dal Negro.

The projects will finance two three-year research doctorates in Forestry Sciences and Entomology that are aimed at studying the bark beetle infestation and new prevention methods for the future.