Establishing Climate-Smart Forestry and forest restoration pilots in Europe with citizen and stakeholder engagement

Description

European forests cover more than 1/3 of the land area and play a vital role in Europe's environment, economy, and society. Forests provide a multitude of benefits to society in terms of climate regulation, raw materials, habitats for biodiversity, and many other services. Climate change is a major challenge to European forests, as demonstrated by recent heat waves, extended drought periods, and disturbances (e.g., storms, wildfires, insect outbreaks). Increased climate change may lead to shifts in tree species ranges, changes in forest productivity, and increased disturbance damage. Hence, it is important to assess to what extent adaptation measures are needed to counteract and cope with ongoing effects of climate change and forest disturbances. Climate-Smart Forestry (CSF) has been suggested as an approach to connect mitigation with adaptation measures, enhance the resilience of forest resources and ecosystem services, and meet the needs of society , . CSF has been introduced as a holistic approach to guide forest management in Europe and builds on the concept of sustainable forest management, with a strong focus on climate and ecosystem services. Two important components of CSF are to (i) increase carbon storage in forests in conjunction with other ecosystem services, and to (ii) enhance health and resilience through adaptive forest management. CSF aims to have a mix of measures by developing spatially diverse forest management strategies that acknowledge all carbon pools simultaneously to provide longer-term and larger mitigation benefits, while supporting other ecosystem services. Climate change is also an important threat to European forest biodiversity. Despite ambitious policy targets at multiple policy levels, biodiversity is under increasing threat, and degradation of ecosystems continues at an alarming rate. In the EU, the majority of forest habitat and species in protected, as well as managed forests, are in a non-favorable conservation status. As a result, there is a need to restore degraded ecosystems across the EU, including forests, and particularly those with the most potential to capture and store carbon and prevent and reduce the impact of disturbances. To guide forest practitioners on effective CSF and restoration management practices, evidence is needed on how CSF and forest restoration affect forest functioning and can support climate change mitigation, adaptation, and biodiversity in specific regional settings, including uncertainties. Crucial to the successful implementation of CSF is the coordination with citizens and stakeholders. Engaging local communities is vital to ensure that diverse perspectives and local knowledge are justly incorporated into forest management strategies. Stakeholder engagement fosters social learning, where participants can exchange knowledge, build trust, and collaborate on sustainability solutions. It also reduces marginalization, enhances the capacity for action, and strengthens the adoption of sustainability initiatives. Through collaboration and shared decision-making, the effectiveness of adaptation measures is improved, ensuring that the needs and concerns of all stakeholders are addressed in forest management

Beneficiary & submission

More information on submission and evaluation process can be found on the grants website: https://efi.int/grants-training/grants/G-07-2025

Further information

More information on submission and evaluation process can be found on the grants website: https://efi.int/grants-training/grants/G-07-2025