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Navigating European Forests and forest bioeconomy sustainably to EU climate neutrality

Project Leader: Erb Karlheinz, BOKU Project Leader

Duration:: 01.10.2022-30.09.2026

Programme:: Horizon Europe - Global Challenges - Research & Innovation Action (RIA)

Type of Research: Basic Research

Staff: Gingrich Simone, Sub Projectleader (bis 30.09.2026); Egger Claudine-Caroline, Project Staff; Matej Sarah, Project Staff; Rein Laura Elisabeth, Project Staff

BOKU Research Units: Institute of Forest, Environmental and Natural Resource Policy; Institute of Silviculture; Institute of Social Ecology (SEC)

Subproject(s):
Subproject(s):

Funded by: Commission of the European Communities, Rue de la Loi, Brussels, European Union

Abstract: ForestNavigator aims at assessing in a comprehensive way the climate mitigation potential of European forests and forest-based sectors through modelling of different policy pathways, consistent with the best standards of LULUCF reporting, and thus to inform public authorities on the most suitable approach to forest policy and forest bioeconomy. With a primarily European scope, ForestNavigator provides zooms into carefully selected EU country case studies to enhance the consistency of the EU and national pathways, but it also zooms out towards the global scale, and selected key EU forest trading partners in particular, allowing to duly represent the external drivers, while at the same time accounting for potential leakage effects.
The project will develop and apply a new generation of an integrated policy modelling framework for the EU forests and forest bioeconomy i) representing all relevant mitigation options (afforestation and other forest activities, increasing harvested woody products pool, as well as material and energy substitution) ii) including climate change impacts, incl. biophysical feedbacks, and natural disturbances as an inherent part of the analysis, iii) consistently representing climate and biodiversity relevant policy issues, iv) systematically accounting for effects on forest ecosystem services, and other forest functions, incl. jobs and green growth. To increase the accessibility of the models and the assessments, their understanding and transparency, a novel decision-making platform will be established consisting of i) a web platform (ForestNavigator) and ii) a community of EU policy-makers and relevant national authorities (Forest policy modelling forum).
To reach its ambitious objectives, ForestNavigator will i) integrate and continuously update national data, including inventories, new satellite data products and models, ii) start from highly complex forest and climate models and through emulators build them into operational policy modelling tools, iii) integrate biophysical and socio-economic information, iv) integrate temporal scales, v) consider EU forests and forest bioeconomy in the broader context of other land use and economic sectors, vi) cross geographical scales – from the grid through Member States to the EU within the global context, vii) rely on input from decision makers and experts across geographies and topics.

Keywords: Forest pathology; Forest protection; Forestry; Silviculture; Forest ecology; Forest growth; Renewable resources; Sustainable agriculture;; Climate Change Adaptation; Climate Change Mitigation; Sustainable land use; Forest Ecology; Forestry;