Credit: Mireille Feldtrauer

Luxembourg's Nature and Forest Agency (Administration de la nature et des forêts, ANF) has announced that it will be showing a film to mark this year's International Day of Forests, held annually on 21 March.

In 2012, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 21 March as International Day of Forests. On this day, countries are invited to engage in activities around forests and trees in order to celebrate the forest in all its facets.

This year, in view of the exceptional situation and in order to reduce the risk of spreading coronavirus, the ANF and Fondation Hëllef fir d'Natur cancelled all outdoor activities they had planned for this occasion in collaboration with their partners. Instead, the ANF has decided to mark the day digitally by offering a new film on the work of renaturing alluvial and humid forests in the Grand Duchy. This film can be viewed online on the site www.emwelt.lu in Luxembourgish, French and German.

For many years, Luxembourg's Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development and the ANF have implemented various projects aimed at preserving and improving the biodiversity of Luxembourg's forests. Such projects include the installation of old growth pockets and the designation of biodiversity trees in municipal and state forests, the declaration of natural reserves, the development of seed orchards containing rare shrub species to improve biological diversity in the forest, the renaturation of wetlands in forests, the creation of structured inter- and intraforest borders and sustainable management of the different types of habitats protected at the national and European levels.

The aim of all these measures is to guarantee a great diversity of different natural habitats in the long term and consequently to maintain increasing biodiversity in Luxembourg's forests.