ForestNavigator – Designing policies addressing the forest sector for achieving EU climate goals

© IIASA

The ForestNavigator project was launched in 2022 and brings together 24 research institutions from 13 EU countries and China to support the European Commission and national authorities in designing robust sectoral policies addressing forests and the forest sector for achieving climate neutrality in the EU. In addition, the project partners are developing a policy modeling toolbox with alternative policy pathways promoting transparent dialogue between decision makers and scientists throughout the region.

This week, a stakeholder board of 21 forest experts, policymakers, NGOs, forest owners and managers, and representatives from business and industry will meet at IIASA for the project’s first stakeholder workshop to present the core aims and outputs of the ForestNavigator project. The stakeholder board is one component of the ForestNavigator Platform that aims to find solutions that enhance the EU forests and forest-based sector contribution to climate neutrality beyond the project lifetime.

“Our goal with this workshop is to build a long-term dialogue with relevant stakeholders and to integrate their input in ForestNavigator research to ensure the policy pathways are relevant for various forest players,” explains ForestNavigator Principal Investigator and IIASA Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program Director, Petr Havlík.

Major data and model advancements generated during the project lifetime will be hosted on the ForestNavigator Portal.

“ForestNavigator is developing the next generation Policy Modeling Toolbox to address the gap between the needs of decision makers and the capacity of current large-scale models supporting their policies,” comments Fulvio Di Fulvio, co-principal investigator and a senior researcher in the Integrated Biosphere Futures Research Group of the Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program.

The participants are invited to engage in active dialogue to understand the various stakeholders’ views, perceptions, and preferences on policy goals and pathways, the benefits of the ForestNavigator Portal concept, and a first overview of expected indicators. The project will develop a new generation EU-wide biophysical forest model calibrated to detailed regional models.

“During the stakeholder workshop, the participants will contribute with their expertise and prioritize forest management storylines, which will be the basis for modeling policy pathways”, adds Andrey Lessa, the scientific coordinator of the ForestNavigator project.

In addition to the above, the stakeholders will discuss their understanding around the current hierarchy of forest management options and implications for ecosystem services and markets.