RESEARCH PROGRAMME 1:
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT


Head of Programme: Marcus Lindner

Three research directions identified in the current EFI Strategy are addressed in this Programme:

  • Future development and potential of European forests as renewable resources for wood, energy, water and other goods and services (e.g. carbon sequestration, soil protection, biodiversity)
  • Effects of forest management and the forest value chain on economic, environmental, social and cultural sustainability in Europe
  • Impacts of climate change and other (a)biotic disturbances on forests to economy, ecology, social conditions and human safety, and development of adaptation and mitigation strategies in forest management


European forests offer renewable resources to the forest sector as well as many ecosystem services which are important to society. Assessing the sustainability of forest resource management is an essential contribution to support the ambition of the European Union to foster knowledge-based sustainable resource utilization. Climate change remains a major threat to the environment and the society at large. Forest management will have to adapt to the changing environmental conditions and one of the big challenges to forest research is to secure that forests will continue to provide the full range of goods and services in the future. Forests store large amounts of carbon and through sustainable use of the renewable resource both in wood products and as bioenergy they can contribute to the mitigation of climate change.

Most important ongoing projects

SENSOR: Sustainability Impact Assessment: Tools for Environmental, Social and Economic Effects of Multifunctional Land Use in European Regions. The project aims at delivering ex-ante Sustainability Impact Assessment Tools (SIAT) to support decision making on policies related to multifunctional land use in European regions. The task of Research Programme 1 is related to forest resource development under different policy scenarios.

EFORWOOD: Tools for Sustainability Impact Assessment of Forestry-Wood Chain. The Project aims to develop a quantitative decision support tool for Sustainability Impact Assessment of the European Forestry-Wood Chain. Research Programme 1 is in charge of developing the Sustainability Impact Assessment Tool (ToSIA).

For more projects under Forest Ecology and Management Programme, see Project Database

For staff in the Forest Ecology and Management Programme, see Staff pages