CAMBIFORRUS will build and strengthen the co-operation with partners in Northwestern Russia on issues of man-made changes and their impacts on forest growth. The objective of the project is to promote co-operation by training and integrating resources of participating scientific organisations in Europe and Northwestern Russia.

This is needed in order to sustain the role of EU on the international stage and to make available the European methodological capacity in the area of forest growth monitoring under changing environmental conditions. At present time there is a deteriorating situation in the scientific infrastructure in Russia. Most of the research support from the government allows using funds only for the salaries of the researchers. Analysis of the influence of changing environmental conditions on forest growth is impossible without modern technique approaches for measuring daily cambial activity.

Analysis of daily diameter growth of trees in undisturbed forests will allow to get relevant information to more reliably model the state of forest resources in the future under global climate change, which is primary associated with man-made changes. One of the tasks of the project is to install modern scientific equipment for forest growth monitoring and to provide training how to use it in the most efficient way. It will provide valuable data for the scientific community in EU and Russia on high-resolution daily cambial activity in undisturbed boreal forests.

This will also support scientific communication between EU and NIS scientists interested in response of undisturbed boreal forests to global change. Training for participants on methods of identification and management of environmental risks for forest growth will be organized in Finland, Russia and Germany. Finally, one open research seminar will be organized in Russia for a wide scientific community on issues of cambial monitoring for the management of environmental risks.