The future of our forests is uncertain, especially due to climate change and increasing disturbances. If we want to ensure that forests continue to provide their valuable ecosystem services in challenging times, we need to investigate climate change and disturbances effects and project how they will impact our forests in the future. In I-Maestro we updated the Database on Forest Disturbances in Europe (DFDE) and analysed disturbance trends in European forests 1950-2019. We carried out simulation studies with several forest simulation models in France, Poland and Slovenia, which showed that management at the forest landscape scale can have significant impacts on the provision of ecosystem services. Key results and policy recommendations derived from the work in I-Maestro are presented in the policy brief: I-Maestro: Projecting the future of our forests.
The policy brief was edited by Gesche Schifferdecker, Gabriela Rueda and Marcus Lindner of the European Forest Institute with contributions from the whole I-Maestro Project-Team:
INRAE – France: Patrick Vallet, Thomas Cordonnier, Raphael Aussenac, Björn Reineking, Benoit Courbaud, Arnaud Guyennon, Jean Matthieu Monnet, Natheo Beauchamp, Sophie Labonne,
PIK – Germany: Christopher Reyer, Mats Mahnken, Martin Gutsch,
EFI – Germany: Marcus Lindner, Gesche Schifferdecker, Mart-Jan Schelhaas, Marco Patacca, Laura Nikinmaa, Sergey Zudin, Rosa Castaneda, Gabriela Rueda,
UAK – Poland: Jarosław Socha, Luiza Tyminska, Ewa Grabska, Pawel Hawrylo, Pawel Netzel, Srdan Keren,
UL – Slovenia: Tom Nagel, Matteo Cerioni, Gal Fidej, Matija Klopčič.
The policy brief is accompanied by a short documentary film: “Projecting the future of our forests“, 13mn 06, November, 2022
This video was produced by Rosa Castaneda and Gesche Schifferdecker at EFI with participation from several I-Maestro researchers.