Monitoring the Multi-functionality of European Forests

This topic supports the implementation of the new EU forest strategy for 2030 by addressing the design of a comprehensive forest information system that align information on forest and soil state, the provision of ecosystem services (including biomass, biodiversity and carbon removals) and socio-economic demands on ecosystem services.

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:

• Development of a comprehensive information base for all stakeholders involved in forest matters, from policy making, through forest restoration and conservation planning and funding of such activities, to practical forest management.
• Successful implementation of forest-related policy objectives under the European Green Deal, including the building of a forest-based bioeconomy, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the increase of carbon removals, the contribution to climate change adaptation, the provision of ecosystem services and the conservation and restoration of forest biodiversity.
• Better understanding of the quantity and quality of European forests, their multifunctional role and resilience needs under climate change and contribution to halting the loss of biodiversity.
• Efficient implementation of possible certification schemes in relation to forest multifunctionality (e.g., closer-to-nature forest management practices, carbon farming).

In the context of climate change impacts, accelerated biodiversity loss and the need to adjust our socio-economic system to a more sustainable alternative, forests play increasingly a double role as victim and part of the solution. While their resilience and potential are under threat, they help to mitigate climate change (e.g., through carbon sequestration), and contribute to climate change adaptation (buffering thermal variations or variations in water flows), harbour large parts of terrestrial biodiversity and provide feasible solutions to support the transition to a bioeconomy.

To adequately manage forests and the services they provide, reliable, up-to-date, and coherent European forest information is more important. However, one of the challenges remain how to integrate information from different sources on the many functions that forests fulfil and the benefits they provide to society. Currently, data are scattered and often focusing on a limited set of indicators, which do not adequately represent the multi-functionality of forests.

This topic addresses the design of a comprehensive forest information system that aligns information on forest state, ecosystem services (including biomass) provision and socio-economic ecosystem services demand.

Proposals will:

• Develop a list of parameters relevant for monitoring of a range of ecosystems services provided by forests.
• Consider the latest scientific knowledge and technology (e.g., through the use of AI, IoT/sensors, robotics and blockchain) for the development, combination, and utilization of reliable data from multiple sources (e.g., national forest inventories, remote sensing, environmental monitoring, large scale societal surveys, national or smaller-scale economic data etc.)
• Assess and propose suitable solutions to make these data available, also by considering issues related to the governance and funding of a fully harmonised monitoring system at EU-level.
• Engage in a structured dialogue with institutions and stakeholders, including the European Commission, national competent authorities, representatives of the forest-sector, as well as data providers to align the needs and possibilities of data collection, provision, and use.

The project must implement the multi-actor approach and ensure an adequate involvement of the primary production sector and the wider forest-based value chain.

Proposals may involve financial support to third parties e.g. to primary producers, academic researchers, start-ups, SMEs, data providers, national administrations, and other multidisciplinary actors, to, for instance, develop, test or validate developed applications. A maximum of € 60 000 per third party might be granted. Conditions for third parties support are set out in Part B of the General Annexes. Consortia need to define the selection process of organisations, for which financial support may be granted. Maximum 20% of the EU funding can be allocated to this purpose. The financial support to third parties can only be provided in the form of grants.

Proposals should build on past or ongoing research projects and collaborate with relevant initiatives, including the Forest Information System for Europe (FISE).

Cross-articulation with the other data spaces, and notably with the European Open Science Cloud should be foreseen, exploiting synergies and complementarities of the different approaches. Efforts should be made to increase the data availability in the appropriate data-infrastructures for further uses.

JRC is available for sharing and taking up results and findings on the monitoring of the forest ecosystem multifunctionality in the EU Observatory for Deforestation, Forest Degradation and Associated Drivers and JRC Big Data Analytics Platform.

In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.