Florian Kraxner

Biography

Florian Kraxner is a Principal Research Scholar and Leader of the Agriculture, Forestry, and Ecosystem Services Research Group of the IIASA Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program. He is also a Visiting Professor at Korea University in Seoul, where he focuses on land-based negative emission technologies and climate-resilient land systems.

At IIASA, he leads research on integrated global landscape and land-use modeling, sustainable supply chains, systems optimization, and the assessment of climate-change impacts and risks. A particular emphasis of his work is on natural disturbances, climate risks, and the interactions between forests, land use, biodiversity, carbon, and human systems.

His research portfolio spans forest and landscape restoration; carbon dioxide removal (CDR), including afforestation and reforestation, long-term carbon storage in harvested wood products and timber construction, and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS); nature-based and nature-climate solutions; ecosystem-service assessment; and sustainability safeguards, including forest management and certification. Biodiversity, carbon and nutrient cycles, and the integration of ecological processes with socioeconomic and societal dimensions are cross-cutting themes throughout his work.

He holds an MSc in Forestry and Mountain Risk Engineering from BOKU University, Vienna, and a PhD in Environmental Sciences from Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan. He has served in a range of international scientific and advisory roles, including within Future Earth, the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO), and the Asian Resilience Center, and is President of the International Boreal Forest Research Association (IBFRA). He is also the Scientific Lead of the Science and Timber Construction Alliance (SITCA) and the Austrian National Team Leader for IEA Bioenergy Task 45 on the climate and sustainability effects of bioenergy within the circular bioeconomy. He also represents Austria in several international forest-related expert groups and teams of specialists under the FAO/UNECE Timber Committee.


Last update: 08 OCT 2026