Safeguarding Carbon and Biodiversity across European Forest Ecosystems through Multi-actor Innovation
Forests play a critical role in mitigating climate change and supporting biodiversity, however several old-growth and natural ecosystems are under pressure from intensive human activities and ecosystem change .
Protecting and restoring forests is crucial for sustainable and climate-neutral societies. Without coordinated conservation and restoration efforst, these ecosystems risk loosing capacity to provide essential services like carbon storage and habitat for wildlife. To protect and restore forest ecosystems, the EU-funded FORbEST project will operate across five key EU biogeographical regions and one tropical area to understand the impacts of forests management.
The project will engage local communities in developing conservation and sustainable management practices that enhance biodiversity, support climate adaptation and empower citizens for a greener future.
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The project
The FORbEST Horizon Europe project works with management and conservation practices across five key EU biogeographical regions and one non-EU tropical region (Northern Thailand), to understand the impact of past and current governance, and to create shared roadmaps toward sustainable futures. The project employs an array of methodologies including advanced remote sensing, artificial intelligence, citizen science, and participatory action research to unlock powerful, comprehensive monitoring regimes of forest habitats, and to enable a better understanding of their resilience and functionality.
Coordinated by: Oulun Yliopisto (University of Oulu, UOULU), Finland
FORbEST research is grounded in a transdisciplinary approach using participatory Living Labs designed to engage a diversity of stakeholders in meaningful knowledge exchange through intensive workshops.
FORbEST research is grounded in a transdisciplinary approach using participatory Living Labs designed to engage a diversity of stakeholders in meaningful knowledge exchange through intensive workshops.
Objectives and Ambitions
Living Labs will empower diverse actors to collectively imagine, iterate, and co-design new paths using carbon-rich biodiverse old growth forests to inform best management practices and enhance current forest management practices to maximize resilience in a changing climate. FORbEST emphasizes multi-actor approaches to robust stakeholder engagement, as a means of achieving climate change mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity conservation, economic diversification, and citizen empowerment across multiple scales.
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FORbEST is a Horizon Europe project funded by the European Union (Grant Agreement No. 101181878). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
Pictures of forests: courtesy of Marek Mejstrik