Research

The aim of the project is to optimize the monitoring and reporting of forest disturbance and damage in the UNECE region. Our forests are exposed to an increasing number of different threats that endanger the vitality of their ecosystems. However, healthy and vital forests are a basic prerequisite for the provision of ecosystem services and functions, for the supply of wood as a renewable resource and for the creation of green jobs. Therefore, accurate and timely information on forest disturbance and damage in the UNECE region is crucial for national, regional and global action. Information on forest disturbance and damage is collected through the FAO Global Forest Resource Assessment and regional processes such as FOREST EUROPE and the Montréal Process. However, the preliminary project (2020-2022) to analyze nationally reported data on forest disturbance and damage in the UNECE region shows data gaps and inconsistencies in reporting as well as a lack of comparability and timeliness of data. There is great potential and an urgent need to improve international reporting on forest disturbance and damage. These harmonizations and improvements are necessary to meet the requirements of sustainable forest management and appropriate forest, environmental and resource governance. This project builds on this to significantly improve the assessment of forest disturbance and damage and international reporting in this area. It is expected that the additional information generated by this project will harmonize and optimize national monitoring systems and reporting modalities for future forest disturbance and damage reporting.

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.

An increased use of wood in construction is seen to contribute to a needed reduction of greenhouse gas emissions for climate change mitigation. Although Austria can be seen as a frontrunner in and supporter of wood construction in the recent decades, there are still significant legal, structural, financial and technical challenges for the use of wood in a circular bio-economy. The European Green Deal strongly supports this goal, however, the implications are difficult to assess since sustainable wood construction is a cross-cutting field, the development and implementation of specific measures are still in the making and need to be coordinated across different policy sectors with different goals and preferences. The project aims to assess the potential impacts of the new regulations on the forests and forest-based value chains and to identify purposeful instruments for policy implementation. The project therefore aims to i) analyse the relevant EU policies and their implications for a biobased circular wood construction in Austria, ii) analyse the institutional frame for wood construction in Austria and specific support mechanisms for the use of wood in construction, iii) compare the frame conditions and support measures across selected European countries (Germany, Switzerland, Finland) and iv) analyse barriers and fostering factors and derive recommendations and instruments for Austria. This is intended to support policy development and coordination on national and European levels and to support the role of Austria as a leading country in the use of wood and in developing a circular bioeconomy.