Founded in 2025, ECONICS INSTITUTE e.V. is a think tank for ecosystems. In terms of content and subjects, it builds on the previous work of the Centre for Econics and Ecosystem Management at Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development. It brings together applied scientific and practical expertise on dealing with ecosystems in the climate crisis.
The ECONICS INSTITUTE e.V. stands for the “econic” approach, i.e., learning from nature’s economy for sustainable human economic activity. Our conceptual foundation is a holistic view of the landscape as a complex socio-ecological system. We want to contribute to the functioning of specific ecosystems.
The headquarters of the non-profit association is located in Chorin in the UNESCO Schorfheide-Chorin Biosphere Reserve.
The ECONICS Green-Moist-Cool Index is a composite index for ecosystems. Similar to economic indicators, and based on real measured data, it enables a systematic assessment of the working capacity of our landscapes — and their resilience for the future. It cleary shows that the green-moist-cool triad reinforces itself through positive feedback loops: where it is cooler and moister, green vegetation can thrive, which in turn retains water more effectively and can cool its surroundings even at higher temperatures.
We humans, today and in the future, need the forest for a good life. The social ecological approach does not rule out the management of forests; on the contrary, it makes it indispensable–treating all ecosystem services as potentially scarcening resources. In doing so, the triad applies that forest management should be ecosystem-based, ethically reflected, and must contribute to the short- and long-term well-being of people.
The Schöneberg Wild Forest is a forest area covering around 400 hectares in northeastern Brandenburg (Uckermark district). Forests planted decades ago have been dying for several years as a result of extremely hot and dry summers. But the forest is already growing again. With the support of the Umweltstiftung Michael Otto, we are investigating spontaneous regeneration in order to gain insights for sustainable forest management in times of climate crisis.
On behalf of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment and in collaboration with the transdisciplinary company agrathaer, we are evaluating the monitoring data for the UNESCO World Natural Heritage beech forests in Germany. Grumsin, Hainich, Jasmund, Kellerwald, and Serrahn are part of a European World Heritage Site. What can we learn from them?
The ECONICS INSTITUTE is part of the Forest Alliance (Wald-Allianz): a network for forests owners, managers, researchers and activits. Together, we aim to promote social-ecological stewardship of forests. But what shapes this understanding of forest ecosystems? As a shared guiding vision, the Alliance has now set out social-ecological forest management in ten principles.
Fifteen years ago, UNESCO recognised Germany’s beech forests, as part of a European network, as World Natural Heritage. To mark the occasion, the Federal Ministry for the Environment invited experts to a conference at Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE) in September 2026.
Since 2023, the ECONICS INSTITUTE has been studying the Schöneberg Forest in the Lower Oder Valley National Park. Left to develop wild, without forestry or hunting interventions, the former managed forest has become a wild wood and an open-air laboratory for forest development under extreme climate conditions. To make forest change tangible for many people, we ask for your support.
Germany is losing its natural air conditioning: The ECONICS Green-Moist-Cool Index 2026, presented today by the ECONICS INSTITUTE together with NABU, shows, where ecosystems are particularly high-performing and where they urgently need restoration, based on environmental data. The five-year trend for the years 2021 to 2025 is alarming: The working capacity of many ecosystems is diminished.
On 8 July 2026 Prof. Ibisch was invited as a guest speaker on the occasion of the annual conference of the Association des Forestiers Luxembourgeois (Asbl) at Château de Bourscheid. Forests are complex systems and insights from ecosystem ecology have tangible implications for the aims and practices of forest management in the climate crisis.
On 4 July 2026, Prof. Ibisch spoke on the topic ‘Greener, wetter and cooler: Nature in Germany needs to do more (and it can, if we support it)’. The talk was part of the GreenPulse festival, organised by the elobau Foundation, a partner of the Social-Ecological Forest Management study programme. Nature is not our service provider, but it does work for us. The good news is that we can help it do so.