CLImate Mitigation and Bioeconomy pathways for sustainable FORESTry (CLIMB-FOREST)

CLIMB-FOREST suggests alternative sustainable short-, mid-, and long-term pathways for the forest sector to mitigate climate change in entire Europe, considering preservation of biodiversity, ecosystem services, bioeconomy, socioeconomic factors, use of long-lived wood products, and barriers for change. It will have long-term impact by creating attitude change in the policymaking process in the EU and influence foresters to adopt to new forest management strategies.

This is accomplished through several work packages closely interrelated: We aim to 1) make a conclusive map of current forestry and management in Europe, 2) gather data and enhance process understanding of carbon uptake, sinks and other factors impacting on climate at intensively researched forest field site infrastructures, 3) quantify the bioeconomy, and customer and forest industry preferences for alternative wood products and management practices, 4) perform pan-European modelling of scenarios, and the environmental and climate impact of alternative pathways for European forestry, 5) ensure adaptation to new management strategies and forest preservation owing to intense field site visits in geographically representative locations in Europe, and 6) synthesize and disseminate the CLIMB-FOREST outcomes tailored for impact on the entire forest sector.

The unique strength of the CLIMB-FOREST initiative and the potential to secure future impact, lies mainly in four crucial factors; 1) the unprecedented mapping of current forestry, management and carbon sequestration, 2) the quantification of all biogeochemical and biophysical processes in the forest, which is instrumental to the understanding of climate effects in the forest, 3) the beyond the state-of-the-art modelling that involves all socioeconomic and physical factors, and agents acting in the forest sector, and 4) the multi-actor stakeholder co-creation process generating knowledge transfer and means of change in the forestry sector.