The goal of improving the landscape’s water retention capacity brings together numerous regional stakeholder groups. They have recognised the impact that water-related ecosystem services have on the stability and resilience of forests and forestry operations, as well as on societal services as a whole. This is where the three-year RegioBlau project*, led by the IfLS and launched in October 2025, comes in. The focus is on how stakeholders from forestry, local government, water management, nature conservation and other sectors can work together more effectively. The aim is to increase decision-makers’ willingness to implement water retention measures in municipal and privately owned forests. By further developing regional governance structures and through targeted awareness-raising initiatives, the project aims to create suitable conditions and a supportive framework for the implementation of such measures. The RegioBlau project, funded by the Agency for Renewable Resources with funds from the BMLEH, is being implemented by the IfLS in collaboration with team ewen as a project partner for communication and mediation, as well as with regional stakeholders in two real-world laboratories.
Nineteen representatives from the districts of Westerwald and Altenkirchen took part in the online kick-off of the ‘Northern Rhineland-Palatinate’ real-world laboratory on 13 January 2026. Those involved included the Hachenburg and Altenkirchen forestry offices, municipal associations, district administrations, district forestry associations, the Structural and Approval Directorate North, the Hatzfeldt-Wildenburg Administration and the Masgeik Foundation. The aim of the real-world laboratory is to establish a regional project group to steer the project process on the ground. The representatives take on various roles – as decision-makers, multipliers or through their technical expertise. The participants at the kick-off event expect the RegioBlau project, in particular, to foster better networking and more binding cooperation among regional stakeholders, as well as greater acceptance of measures through targeted communication. They also hope for practical ways to make work easier, examples of good practice for smaller-scale measures with low-threshold funding options, modular approaches to water retention – for instance, to address the challenges posed by fragmented private forest structures – as well as tailored information for stakeholders involved throughout the decision-making chain.
At the next in-person regional project group meeting in June, the results of the status quo analysis are to be discussed and the next steps in the real-world laboratory process finalised.
*Information on the RegioBlau project: https://www.ifls.de/regioblau
Contact persons at IfLS: Marie Sophie Schmidt (schmidt[at]ifls.de); Simone Sterly (sterly[at]ifls.de)
