The overall objective of TRANSFORMIT is to demonstrate and improve the effectiveness of integrative forest management (IFM) to combine productive forestry and biodiversity conservation by integrating existing practical and scientific knowledge, and to stipulate collaboration and mutual learning amongst science, policy and practice. TRANSFORMIT will lay the basis for larger scale implementation of IFM through proactive engagement with well-established networks, such as the Integrate Network, and a corresponding Chinese consortium. Capitalizing these networks, TRANFORMIT will (a) create a Stakeholder Engagement Platform for intensive collaboration, mutual learning and sharing of knowledge among conservation and forestry bodies, forest managers, forest owners, research institutions, certification bodies and other interested stakeholders to exploit synergies and minimise trade-offs in forest management, (b) promote IFM though the establishment of seven Living Labs that serve as role models to spread IFM across European regions, (c) create a set of practical IFM recommendations and evidence-based guidelines for upscaling and addressing multiple, possibly conflicting objectives of forest management, d) update, demonstrate and verify IFM actions to help achieve EU forest policy targets as part of the EU Green Deal, Biodiversity Strategy and the EU Forest Strategy 2030, (e) demonstrate approaches for the diversification of IFM methods and appropriate use with a strong involvement of practitioners, (f) demonstrate the active use of Decision Support Tools (DSTs) and forest modelling as well as innovative technologies to address effects of different forest management approaches on the provision of ecosystem services and effects of climate change on forests, (g) apply context-dependent and site-appropriate, participatory, multi-stakeholder and interdisciplinary methods.

Forests represent the largest terrestrial carbon sink that can be economically managed to combat climate change. In this context, sustainable forest management will become a major tool of the EU Green Deal on the road to an economic growth decoupled from resource use. But essential forest functions are increasingly threatened by climate change and related natural disturbances, while the knowledge regarding the effects of forest management on biophysical and biogeochemical fluxes exchanged between land and atmosphere are too limited. Accordingly, the overall objective of the INFORMA project is to increase the science-based knowledge on multi-purpose sustainable forest management under climate change. More particularly, it will analyse the trade-offs and synergies between different objectives considering the environmental integrity and climate feedbacks, social acceptability and economic feasibility of future European forest practices, including zero management options. It will identify options for maintaining carbon sinks, in addition to fostering productivity, supporting genetic diversity, biodiversity conservation, and maintaining soil and water resources in the different European ecoregions. Applying a multi-actor approach, INFORMA will 1) Quantify differences in major ecosystem functions affecting climate processes between managed and unmanaged forests across Europe; 2) Analyse socio-institutional patterns of innovative forest-based mitigation and adaptation strategies; 3) Search for management alternatives (including no-management) and simulate their effect on a variety of ecosystem functions; and 4) Improve forest carbon certification for a cost-effective operationalisation and integration of climate smart practices in forestry. INFORMA main outputs will be best regional management practices, implementation pathways for the European forestry sector, recommendations for forest carbon certification improvements and for economic-institutional policy action.

One of the major challenges relating to the management of Europe’s forests is to balance the provision of distinct forest ecosystem services with broad societal demands. If markets and existing governance arrangements fail, forest owners and managers struggle to meet societal needs. There is a necessity to explore new approaches to connect profitable forest management with changing societal demands. Against this background, innovative mechanisms (IM), including novel policies and business models, have the potential to align ecosystem services supply and demand. SINCERE will, first, systematically map the existing knowledge and practical experiences with IM at the European scale. Second, it will, in a joint effort of practice partners and researchers, design, implement and subsequently evaluate a complementary set of innovation actions that explore novel IM in different regional contexts. These actions encompass a broad spectrum of forest ecosystem services (e.g. biodiversity, climate change mitigation, water supply, recreation), governance mechanisms (e.g. new business models, ‘reverse auctions’ with forest owners, participatory governance) and regional settings (e.g. intensively managed commercial forests in Finland versus little-managed forest land in Spain). Third, a Learning Architecture will connect these innovation actions across countries to incentivize cross-case fertilization and learning between research and practice. Finally, practice partners, policy makers and researchers will jointly draw lessons learnt from the innovation actions, including the upscaling of successful IM to be replicated elsewhere. The project will also push for innovations at the interface between policies and on-the-ground IM, and will deliver concrete suggestions for a coordinated European policy framework that supports IM. Target group-specific communication and dissemination activities will ensure SINCERE’s impact throughout the entire project duration.

FORADVISE will develop a European network of forest advisory organisations, actors, and networks, to support the modernisation of the forestry sector, and advance towards EU and national policy targets. It will speed up knowledge flows, increase the competences of forest advisors beyond traditional areas of advice, and develop pathways towards a future Forest Knowledge and Innovation System (FOKIS) in Europe. Its ultimate goal is to advance towards more resilient, multifunctional, and productive forests in Europe. To achieve this, FORADVISE, creates a EU forest advisory network on forestry, and animates an iterative knowledge sharing process, combining national and international action, and implements knowledge transfer pilots to adapt advisory practices to new contexts. It develops training modules, contextualising well proven approaches and materials, delivering them through a MOOC. It develops a Cost Benefit Analysis toolkit to increase advisors’ capacities to assess social and economic implications. Lessons learned are the basis for a systematic engagement of policy makers, to create feasible and desirable pathways for the development of forest advisory systems in Europe, and to integrate forest advisors into the Member States’ AKIS. All these activities are supported by an analysis of the Forest Knowledge and Innovation Systems, and the needs and preferences of its different actors. Project activities are supported with dedicated communication and dissemination activities, and exploited through tailored impact pathways, including a digital knowledge platform. As the project advances, a smooth transition towards a self-sustained network is embedded into project activities. A dedicate task identifies working modalities and business models for the long-term continuation of the network, building upon the experience of the FOREXT initiative. FORADVISE consortium gathers Europe’s main actors in forestry advice.