Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ForestPaths (Co-designing Holistic Forest-based Policy Pathways for Climate Change Mitigation)
Reporting period: 2024-03-01 to 2025-08-31
To achieve climate and biodiversity goals, policy pathways are needed that outline alternative trajectories to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Forests and the forest-based sector play an essential role in this context as they provide natural carbon sinks and wood products can contribute to reduce emissions. The EU-funded ForestPaths project will co-design, quantify and evaluate comprehensive forest-based policy pathways to maximise forests’ and the forest-based sector's contribution to climate change mitigation. The project will examine the need to adapt forests to climate change impacts, conserve biodiversity and sustain forest ecosystem services. It will also identify feasible climate- and biodiversity-smart management and wood use options across Europe, and analyse co-benefits and trade-offs related to biodiversity and ecosystem services. Moreover, ForestPaths will engage policymakers, forest practitioners, regional and national authorities, the forest-based sector, certification bodies, researchers and civil society.
WP1 completed its efforts to understand decision-making behavior among forest practitioners, especially in adopting climate- and biodiversity-smart forest management through literature reviews, workshops, interviews, and a survey (D1.3)
WP2 completed its activities and developed the Forest Disturbances Atlas as a next-generation set of forest disturbance maps for Europe (D2.1 and 2.5). In addition, a set of European-wide forest structure and tree genus maps has been developed (D2.2 and 2.5). These results have been used to develop forest disturbance models (D2.3) and a map of High Conservation Value Forests (D2.4)
WPs 3 and 4 have developed an integrated assessment framework by combining multiple forest, land use, and biodiversity models, economic models, and integrated assessment models (WP3; D3.1 3.2 3.3 and 3.4). Additionally, WP4 created and completed a material flow analysis for Europe (D4.1) along with open access tools for Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and material flows (D4.2) to improve the assessment of the temporal mitigation potential and biodiversity impacts of wood products (D4.3).
WP5 developed an exploratory scenario framework. The improved models, tools and data from WPs 3 and 4 have been applied in WP5 to examine the effects of options to protect, manage, and restore forests, and wood use, on mitigation and biodiversity. The results of this exploratory analysis serve as basis for developing policy pathways.
WP6 co-designed visions of forests during the second Policy Lab (MS13), which will serve as the basis for co-designing holistic forest-based policy pathways.
WP2 completed its activities and developed the Forest Disturbances Atlas as a next-generation set of forest disturbance maps for Europe (D2.1 and 2.5). In addition, a set of European-wide forest structure and tree genus maps has been developed (D2.2 and 2.5). These results have been used to develop forest disturbance models (D2.3) and a map of High Conservation Value Forests (D2.4)
WPs 3 and 4 have developed an integrated assessment framework by combining multiple forest, land use, and biodiversity models, economic models, and integrated assessment models (WP3; D3.1 3.2 3.3 and 3.4). Additionally, WP4 created and completed a material flow analysis for Europe (D4.1) along with open access tools for Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and material flows (D4.2) to improve the assessment of the temporal mitigation potential and biodiversity impacts of wood products (D4.3).
WP5 developed an exploratory scenario framework. The improved models, tools and data from WPs 3 and 4 have been applied in WP5 to examine the effects of options to protect, manage, and restore forests, and wood use, on mitigation and biodiversity. The results of this exploratory analysis serve as basis for developing policy pathways.
WP6 co-designed visions of forests during the second Policy Lab (MS13), which will serve as the basis for co-designing holistic forest-based policy pathways.
Major results of ForestPaths’ beyond state-of-the-art include:
• Improved understanding of factors shaping decision-making behaviour of forest practitioners across Europe on adopting and locally adapting CBS forest management (WP1; D1.1 1.2 & 1.3).
• Next generation Forest Disturbances Atlas presenting the longest time series of spatially explicit information on disturbances in Europe (WP2; D2.1 & 2.5).
• High-resolution maps on forest composition and structure, providing spatial and thematic detail yet unmatched by existing products (WP2; D2.2 & 2.5).
• Empirical disturbance models for individual disturbance agents trained on pan-European data (WP2 & 3; D2.3 & 3.1).
• Next generation forest modelling capacity using high resolution information on forest composition and structure, disturbances and management to explore the contribution to climate change mitigation (WP3; D3.1).
• Seamless integrated modelling framework for forests and the forest-based sector for coupled socio-economic/ecological systems for analysis at (sub-)national, European and global levels (WP3 & 4; D3.1 3.2 3.4 4.2 & 4.3).
• Coherent and integrative biodiversity assessment for impacts of forest management and climate change and for the life cycle of wood products and their alternatives, to inform policy pathways (WP3 & 4; D3.3 and 4.3).
• Time-explicit LCA tool and material flow analysis tool to capture temporal evolution of substitution benefits of wood-based products to understand when impacts occur in time and what policy actions should be prioritized (WP4; D4.1 4.2 & 4.3).
More information on the results (including project deliverables) can be found on the ForestPaths website: https://forestpaths.eu/(opens in new window)
• Improved understanding of factors shaping decision-making behaviour of forest practitioners across Europe on adopting and locally adapting CBS forest management (WP1; D1.1 1.2 & 1.3).
• Next generation Forest Disturbances Atlas presenting the longest time series of spatially explicit information on disturbances in Europe (WP2; D2.1 & 2.5).
• High-resolution maps on forest composition and structure, providing spatial and thematic detail yet unmatched by existing products (WP2; D2.2 & 2.5).
• Empirical disturbance models for individual disturbance agents trained on pan-European data (WP2 & 3; D2.3 & 3.1).
• Next generation forest modelling capacity using high resolution information on forest composition and structure, disturbances and management to explore the contribution to climate change mitigation (WP3; D3.1).
• Seamless integrated modelling framework for forests and the forest-based sector for coupled socio-economic/ecological systems for analysis at (sub-)national, European and global levels (WP3 & 4; D3.1 3.2 3.4 4.2 & 4.3).
• Coherent and integrative biodiversity assessment for impacts of forest management and climate change and for the life cycle of wood products and their alternatives, to inform policy pathways (WP3 & 4; D3.3 and 4.3).
• Time-explicit LCA tool and material flow analysis tool to capture temporal evolution of substitution benefits of wood-based products to understand when impacts occur in time and what policy actions should be prioritized (WP4; D4.1 4.2 & 4.3).
More information on the results (including project deliverables) can be found on the ForestPaths website: https://forestpaths.eu/(opens in new window)