Safeguarding Carbon and Biodiversity across European Forest Ecosystems through Multi-actor Innovation (FORbEST)

ORbEST will synthesise scientific and other evidence on previous and current forest management practices in both protected areas and forests managed for production, to evaluate the opportunities, challenges and uncertainties associated with biodiversity conservation and the delivery of climate benefits under climate change. It will deliver recommendations to effectively maximize the provision of the full spectrum of ecosystem services across European landscapes in five biogeographical regions in Europe and one tropical and mangrove community forest in Southeast Asia, while accounting for their specific socio-economic context, and the uncertainties related to different scenarios of climate change. FORbEST will champion a co-designed, multi-stakeholder approach grounded in Living Labs, to assess the synergies and trade-offs inherent in the various forest management options to achieve multiple site level objectives, including climate change mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity conservation, economic development and citizen empowerment across multiple spatial scales. Uniquely, the project brings a transdisciplinary approach to forest-related research, aligning ecological and social science perspectives with critical thinking from the environmental humanities, through a participatory methodology co-designed by stakeholders, policy makers and scientists. FORbEST will deliver new evidence on the outlook for biodiversity in protected areas, identify bottlenecks and restoration priorities to improve the opportunities for species and community to migrate in man-dominated landscapes, and offer policy and management practice recommendations to harness the potential of forest ecosystems as Nature-based Solutions for addressing the intertwined biodiversity and climate crises