Deforestation is a major contributor to climate change and the expansion of agricultural land for the production of specific agroforestry products known as forest risk commodities (FRCs), represents its main direct driver in tropical countries. European Union (EU) consumption of FRCs accounts for 16% of the global embedded deforestation (an area almost the size of Luxemburg). Ensuring the sustainable supply of FRCs will help EU to achieve its climate targets and increase trust among consumers. However, deforestation is largely considered a “forestry problem” despite links to agriculture, trade and consumption patterns, all along supply chains. This is also the case in training offers of higher education and vocational training organisations (HEI&VETs), resulting in a lack of cross-sectoral approaches and interdisciplinarity in core DFSC disciplines (compliance, technology and corporate social responsibility), for students and professionals. In previous years, most collective commitments made by private and public actors for deforestation-free supply chains (DFSC) have failed to invert the trend and the European Commission (EC) has recently approved the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), to ban the import of FRCs produced on land deforested after 2020. Based on these combined aspects, there is a clear need for innovative approaches to education, training and capacity building on reducing deforestation risk in supply chains of FRCs in EU. EMMA4EU will respond to these gaps by bridging the different disciplines and sectors, connecting HEI&VETs, businesses, public organisations and NGOs to launch an EU alliance that will develop innovative training solutions to create a new profession: the DFSC manager. The new skill sets and professions will combine digital, green and interdisciplinarity skills to support the transition to more sustainable DFSCs of FRCs, implementation of the EUDR, a greener and more circular economy and reaching climate-neutrality by 2050.

The HARMONITOR project will improve the effectiveness of certification schemes and labels (CSLs) in different sectors of the EU Bioeconomy and therewith strengthen their use as a co-regulation instrument. Effective and robust CSLs can cope with some of the difficulties that public regulation faces and fill in policy gaps. The HARMONITOR project will also establish and test a participative review platform concept that allows CSLs to find commonalities and cooperation when operating in bio-based value chains within and across EU borders. This platform is based on the innovative ‘Sustainability Certification Tools’ proposed by the Horizon 2020 project STAR-ProBio to promote continuous improvement of CSLs and continuous knowledge of these dynamic developments by market actors. The specific objectives of the HARMONITOR project are: 1. To establish a review platform to capture the dynamic development of CSLs and encourage their harmonisation and continuous improvement through the exchange of information and promotion of best practices. 2. To provide quantitative, transparent data on bio-based value chains through analysis and dissemination of trade flows (certified and non-certified), and quantification of direct and indirect costs and benefits of certification. 3. To review and compare performance requirements and assurance and governance systems of CSLs. 4. To develop and apply a monitoring system on the effectiveness and robustness of CSLs. 5. To improve the understanding of the opportunities and limitations of using CSLs in co-regulation. The HARMONITOR approach aims to achieve the following outcomes: • Enhanced transparency and traceability of environmental impacts along value chains through improved CSLs. • Higher levels of effectiveness and robustness of CSLs through systematic monitoring. • Increased awareness of trade flows and their impacts. • Possible use of CSLs as a co-regulation instrument as part of the EU Bioeconomy policy framework.

The intensification of natural (extreme weather events and other climate change consequences, biological invasions) and anthropogenic (atmospheric pollution, climate change, change of land use such as the expansion of urban areas, loss of forest management practices, fragmentation of forest properties, etc.) environmental pressures still represent important threats to forests ecosystems; which have resulted in land and forest fragmentation (over 16 million owners in Europe), lack of forest sanitation, loss of forest habitat and reduction of the ecosystem services (including carbon sequestration, timber production, recreation, and biodiversity conservation)2, . The SMURF project, in line with EU’s Forest Strategy, will help promoting sustainable forest management and conserving Europe's forests, by developing a set of solutions focussing on small forest properties: (1) new tailored organizational and business models, based on Closer to Nature Sylviculture practices (CNS), promoting new ecosystem services (carbon farming and biodiversity) and the valorisation of wood/non-wood forest products (2) training, digital tools and other support structures/instruments and (3) guidelines to support policy-makers establishing regional, national and European standardized policies and retribution systems by creating a harmonized European Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) system. With a translational, multidisciplinary and multi-actor approach, thanks to its complementary and polyvalent consortium members composed of private, academia and public stakeholders, and taking into account sociocultural and geodemographic factors sometimes neglected, SMURF will provide sustainability solutions for the entire forest-based value chain.

In eco2adapt we will develop the Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) framework, derived from Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), that harnesses biodiversity and ecosystem services to reduce vulnerability and build social-ecological resilience to climate change. We will work in Living Labs in Europe and China, located in climate hotspots, and adopt a cutting-edge approach to investigate how forest managers integrate disturbance and vulnerability into decision-making. Scenarios of how disturbance affects forest dynamics and ecosystem services at a landscape scale will be derived through modelling, and in Living Labs, stakeholders will learn how their choices affect ecosystem services in neighbouring forests. We will combine interdisciplinary knowledge from scientists and stakeholders in Europe and China to understand perception and provide incentivization for adopting EbA solutions, through local capacity-building and national policy plans. Through Scenario Workshops and Stakeholders Working Groups, we will use a capacity-building approach to create and promote innovative technical, economic and governance mechanisms at a regional level. Semantic technology will be applied to create a knowledge base for hosting FAIR data and creating a SmartPhone Application (named the OneForest ToolBox) that allows users to access and add data concerning climate-resilient species, provenances, mixtures, management techniques and ecosystem services, whilst taking into account future uncertainties about climate and societal changes. We also provide a suite of cutting-edge tools to monitor vulnerability and resilience (including invasive species and above-and below- ground biodiversity), at all levels of society – from the citizen to the policy-maker. By including tailored communication to all levels of society, we will reach out to a broad audience that has the capacity to cause positive change.