Dear friends, partners and supporters,
Much has been said about this difficult year 2025, the challenges and crises. Injustice and cruelty make us very sad. Our sincere sympathy goes out to all those who are denied a dignified life and who have suffered at the hands of other people and the many disasters. Thoughtless destruction of nature and wanton ecocide leave us stunned. The big and small acts of malice, vindictiveness, power games and historical amnesia will continue to occupy us.
But there is also progress, both small and large. New things arise from disaster. The good thing about the adaptive cycle of changing systems is always the openness of the outcome. Chaos can become order. We try to take this thermodynamic insight seriously – that is econic.
We have pooled our experience, taken on new projects and even created a new institute to live what we teach. This has brought us joy, but has also advanced our cause. The ECONICS INSTITUTE is a think tank for ecosystems. We are grateful that we have been able to carry out some very concrete projects for the benefit of forests.
We would like to thank our first sponsors and clients – especially the Michael Otto Environmental Foundation, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation and the Municipal Neighbourhood Forum Berlin-Brandenburg e.V. – and our first donors for their trust and support.
Our work would also be completely unthinkable without our many partners. We would like to express our sincere thanks to Steffen Branding, the Lower Oder Valley National Park, NABU, agrathaer GmbH and Woodify GmbH, among others.
We would also like to express our sincere gratitude to the sponsors and partners of our “predecessor institute,” the Centre for Econics and Ecosystem Management. We would like to mention the IVU Foundation and the municipality of Kleinmachnow, with whom we were able to implement and complete important projects in 2025.
We founded the Centre 15 years ago together with our dear friend Prof. Dr. Peter Hobson as a mechanism for inter-institutional cooperation with Writtle (University) College and to bundle our research and transfer projects, as well as a think tank.
Back in 2010, we also presented our initial ideas on the concept of econics at the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Japan. The Centre became an organisational unit of the Department of Forestry and Environment, and we also founded a support association, Centre for Econics and Ecosystem Management e.V., which implemented small and large projects and commissions in close cooperation with the university and contributed to the overall Econics presence.
Everything has its time; institutions evolve, merge with others or set new priorities. Writtle University College no longer exists, but Peter Hobson is now an honorary member of the ECONICS INSTITUTE.
The Centre for Econics has contributed to the development of new opportunities and global visibility at the University of Applied Sciences for Sustainable Development. In addition to numerous projects on climate change research, the conservation of UNESCO beech forests or the promotion of UNESCO biosphere reserves, there have been scientific and methodological developments such as the MARISCO approach, which is now taught in several degree programmes. The Centre’s leading scientific publication on roadless areas continues to have an impact almost ten years after its publication in the form of theRoadless Initiative. The Centre has supported the long-standing development work of theBiosphere Reserves Institute and contributed significantly to the development of doctoral activities and the internationalisation of the former Eberswalde University of Applied Sciences.
The HNEE has now been institutionally reorganised and is looking for new areas of focus; there is no longer any place for the Centre for Econics and Ecosystem Management e.V. association. This provided further impetus for the creation of our ECONICS INSTITUTE. All the experience gained in the past and the econic expertise that has developed will be preserved and further developed.
As an institute outside the university, we are also committed to learning and education and continue to regard the corresponding connections as groundbreaking. Our flagship project in this context is the support and promotion of the HNEE degree programme in Social-Ecological Forest Management and the dissemination of the ideas of social-ecological forest management beyond university studies –together with our unique network.
In this context, we would also like to thank our friends at the Forest Alliance, where the ECONICS INSTITUTE is succeeding the Centre for Econics.
We want to inform and make an impact. Above all, we promote ecosystem-based thinking and action, which we call pronaturation.
Our appeal for the use of the “green-moist-cool” triad is being heard. The “green-moist-cool index” is only the beginning.
Together with all our members and the entire team, we are looking ahead with motivation and look forward to many more joint activities.
On a personal note,I wish you all the best –individually, for your families, socially and institutionally –for the festive season and for the start of the new year 2026.
Prof. Dr. Pierre Ibisch
Chairman of the Board