About
The Project
The ForestNavigator project aims to support EU and national policy makers with robust policy pathways aligned with medium (2030) and long-term (2050) climate goals.
ForestNavigator integrates novel biophysical and economic modelling tools to develop a comprehensive analytical framework for forest sector mitigation pathways assessment. This framework, efficiently integrated in a Policy Modelling Toolbox systematically that accounts for climate change, socioeconomic and environmental impacts and relies on near-real time data from advanced monitoring systems.
ForestNavigator maximizes its policy relevance by means of a decision-making platform hosting key stakeholders and the ForestNavigator Portal, a web-based visualisation and engagement interface.
Project objectives
Mapping status and changes in EU forests
Near real-time monitoring of forests, carbon and biodiversity
New Policy Modelling Toolbox for forest bioeconomy
Providing policy makers with efficient decision-making tools for climate action
Create the ForestNavigator Platform
Policy Makers, Researchers and Practitioners at one table
Unlocking the EU forest potential to counteract climate change
Comprehensive assessment of forest-based mitigation and adaptation potentials
Policy pathways towards EU climate neutrality
Roadmap for EU forest sector contribution to carbon, biodiversity, and green economy goals
Mapping status and changes in EU forests
Near real-time monitoring of forests, carbon and biodiversity
Unlocking the EU forest potential to counteract climate change
Comprehensive assessment of forest-based mitigation and adaptation potentials
New Policy Modelling Toolbox for forest bioeconomy
Providing policy makers with efficient decision-making tools for climate action
Policy pathways towards EU climate neutrality
Roadmap for EU forest sector contribution to carbon, biodiversity, and green economy goals
Create the ForestNavigator Platform
Policy Makers, Researchers and Practitioners at one table
Background
EU forests play a central role for achieving the EU climate neutrality goal: they cover 44% of the region’s land and absorb nearly 10% of its greenhouse gas emissions each year. This contribution is expected to grow in the future. However, due to increased demand for wood, more natural disturbances and forests reaching maturity, the rate of carbon removals from European forests has been declining in the past decade.
Near real-time monitoring of forest carbon and biodiversity
ForestNavigator integrates remote sensing, field data and statistics for a consistent representation of EU forests status. Near-real time monitoring of changing forest conditions allows for a seamless re-calibration of the modelling tools.
Key products to this objective include:
- Reconciled EU Forest carbon stocks maps (available in 2024)
- High frequency updated forest cover and disturbance maps (available in 2025)
Main contributor: Work Package 2
Assess forest-based mitigation and adaptation potentials under climate change using a comprehensive and high-resolution modelling framework
The EU model (G4M-X) estimates forest growth under climate change and natural disturbances. This model is calibrated to detailed and dynamic forest models (PICUS, 3D-CMCC, PREBAS, FLAM). G4M-X is linked to earth system models (ICON-ESM, COSMO-CLM2) to incorporate local climate feedbacks.
Products that will be available include:
- G4M-X climate change sensitive meta-model (by year 2024)
- MESMER-L-X climate feedback emulator at service of EU forest policy modelling (by year 2025)
Main contributor: Work Packages 3 and 4
New generation Policy Modelling Toolbox for the forest bioeconomy:
EU policy modelling toolbox: To quantify the forest-sector mitigation potential and the socioeconomic and environmental impacts for EU policy pathways, the EU land use model (GLOBIOM-G4M-X) is linked to biodiversity (iBIS), bioeconomy (PRIMES, MAGNET) and climate (MESMER-L-X) models.
National policy models: To verify the alignment between EU and national policy pathways, national scale models are applied in four case studies (Czechia, Ireland, Italy, and Sweden).
Products that will be available include:
- Next generation EU and National models at the service of EU forest policies (by year 2025)
- National and EU baseline pathway for forest sector (by year 2025)
Main contributor: Work Packages 5 and 6
Robust EU policy pathways
The integrated assessment of mitigation pathways considers:
- Climate change and natural disturbances impacts on forest growth and feedback on climate
- Socioeconomic drivers (including developments in the bioeconomy and wood demands)
- Biodiversity and other ecosystem services.
Our robust policy pathways incorporate climate and socioeconomic uncertainties. These pathways will align to national pathways and LULUCF 2030 and 2050 climate targets, and will be updated with near-real time data.
- Reconciled pathways towards EU policy objectives (by 2026)
- Policy toolbox in near real-time update of Greenhouse Gases Inventories (by 2026)
- White paper on data, models, and pathways in support of EU forest climate policy (by 2026)
Main contributor: Work Packages 7 and 8
Decision-making platform
Through a novel decision-making platform, ForestNavigator aims to address stakeholders needs, foster scientific cooperation among modelling teams, provide decision-support tools for policy makers and practitioners, and inform civil society on adaptation, mitigation potentials and pathways. The ForestNavigator Portal, a core function of this platform, equips stakeholders with a user-friendly cyberinfrastructure to interactively explore data and alternative policy pathways.
- Beta versions of the Forest Data Explorer and Forest Pathways Explorer (by 2025)
Main contributor: Work Packages 1, 9 and 10
