Within the last decade, forests in all biogeographical regions of Europe have been affected by changing climate conditions and unprecedented natural disturbances. This has major implications for the overarching forest-wood value chain (FWVC), which includes forest management, wood supply, wood processing and rural (socioeconomic) development. However, the forest-based sector can greatly contribute to climate change mitigation trough carbon storage, the substitution of non-renewable resources and the sustainable use of wood-based materials. Apart from climate change mitigation, forests also have an important role in the transition from a fossil-based to a sustainable bio-based society, thus they are important drivers in bioeconomy transformation and realising the EU Green Deal. To support sustainability and bioeconomy, forest systems must be able to cope with the consequences of increased natural disturbances through climate change while providing forest ecosystem services (FES) at consistent or increased levels, considering different interests in, and perceptions of the forest.
ONEforest supports the deployment of regional forest management concepts that strengthen forest resilience and sustainable wood supply levering wood-based products. This is achieved by empowering actors to understand the far-reaching consequences of their decisions in a multi-criteria decision-making environment. ONEforest provides successful solutions for reconciling the provision of various FES, such as the carbon storage potential in environmentally friendly forest-wood value chains based on stakeholder interests to provide optimised management solutions.
The overall objective of ONEforest is the development of a Multi-Criteria Decision Support System (MCDSS) that supports decision-making by assessing sustainable forest management (SFM) synergies and trade-offs of FES, reliable wood supply, and stakeholder interests through FWVC indicators of social, economic, and environmental dimensions. This contributes, through an interdisciplinary approach, to achieving multi-functional resilient forestry and optimisation of the FWVC while considering the interests of participating stakeholders as well as supporting the development of a bio-based society. ONEforest covers different stakeholders of the FWVC, such as forest owners, industries, operators, logisticians, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), recreationists, etc. by multi-level stakeholder participation. ONEforest provides a programme (namely the MCDSS) to support decision-making at various levels.
