ExpectedOutcome:
In line with the European Green Deal objectives and the EU forest strategy, successful proposals will increase the knowledge on climate change impacts and enhance the practical knowledge on adaptive management practices contributing to efficient monitoring, assessment and projections related to climate change impacts, mitigation and adaptation potential in order to bring out solutions for tackling emerging threats and support decision-making in climate change mitigation and adaptation policies at European and global levels. Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:
- Better knowledge on impacts and effects of drivers and pressures on Europe’s forests in the context of climate change.
- Combination of modern monitoring tools (remote sensing) and traditional approaches (demo sites) in European forests.
- Enhanced practical knowledge on restoration, afforestation, reforestation and forest protection addressing forest composition and forest management practices that support mitigation, adaptation, optimal use of genetic diversity within and among tree species, and (biodiversity), maximising the synergies and minimising trade-offs.
- Better knowledge on best practices for effective adaptation and mitigation strategies, including synergies with biodiversity management goals and soil carbon impacts.
- Increased capacity and exchange of scientific knowledge, proven experience and know-how, tools and practices.
- Engagement of the society in forest restoration through information, participation and merging of societal engagement with scientific evidence and professional expertise.
Scope:
A holistic approach is needed to ensure that climate, biodiversity and bioeconomy goals can be integrated at different scales in practice and with the engagement of local communities, forest owners and industries. Intensive monitoring of impacts and sharing of experiences in the context of climate change is an important decision support at the science-practice interface to implement adapted forest management practices successfully.
Proposals will:
- Establish a European network to gather information on current developments in demo and long-term observation sites;
- Reinitiate EU participation in the International Co-operative Programme on the Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forests (ICP Forests) for long-term observations of forest ecosystems;
- Develop an evidence-based overview on current and planned forest restoration activities across Europe and their socio-economic and environmental impacts;
- Quantify possible synergies and trade-offs between contrasting forest management objectives at different spatial, temporal scales in different social environmental contexts in Europe;
- Analyse typical restoration cases to systematise knowledge on implementation successes and failures in specific regional settings, and distil best practices cases and business models for upscaling;
- Engage with key stakeholders and citizens to develop regionalised restoration trajectories through assessment of regional restoration pathways;
- Consider forward-looking forest conversion through adaptive forest management to mitigate/prevent future adverse effects;
- Improve communication and network/capacity building and exchange of experience, engagement with key stakeholders including national and regional policymakers and enable knowledge exchange beyond the forest community;
- Pilot climate-smart forestry measures and support forest restoration of damaged areas and degraded ecosystems in view of the diverse forest conditions, value chains and societal needs found across Europe.
Proposals may involve financial support to third parties, particularly for setting up of the observatory and for supporting the implementation and scaling-up of climate-smart restoration pilots. All European climate/biogeographical regions should be covered.
In order to achieve the expected outcomes, international cooperation is strongly encouraged.
The involvement of citizens and civil society in co-creating solutions (e.g. as part of user-led innovation or citizen science), alongside other actors, is encouraged as part of the project’s methodology / approach.
Proposals should include a task to collaborate with other projects financed under the topics HORIZON-CL6-2021-CLIMATE-01-09: Enhancing science-based knowledge on EU forests’, including old-growth forests, capacities to mitigate climate change and associated risks and HORIZON-CL6-2021-CLIMATE-01-10: EU-China international cooperation on increasing the resilience of forests.
Projects should consider to collaborate with the EU Observatory on Deforestation and Forest Degradation, managed by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission.
In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.
Cross-cutting Priorities:
Societal EngagementInternational CooperationDigital Agenda
