The project
While the threats caused by climate change are beginning to be well-known amongst stakeholders concerned with forests and even the general public, the need to increase the resilience of our forests and especially the value chains depending on them has gained less attention. Therefore, both proper advice and related tools for forest owners and managers, policy makers and the wood-based industry are lacking. That gap of knowledge is exactly what we are going to tackle with RESONATE, a Horizon2020 project funded by the European Commission with 20 partner institutions from 12 different European countries. Coordinated by the European Forest Institute, we have started the project in April 2021 and will run it for four years. We research on the resilience of the European forest sector, raise awareness about forest resilience and provide best practice examples and tailor-made solutions to all stakeholders.
RESONATE aims to generate the needed knowledge and practices for making European forests, the services they provide, and related economic activities more resilient to future climate change and disturbances.
What we do
Forest resilience research
In RESONATE we investigate how past and current site factors and management affect the resilience of the forest system in different forest types and management systems across Europe.
Response strategies
Based on scenario analysis, foresight studies with active stakeholder engagement, and policy analysis, we will develop response strategies to enhance both forest & forest value chain resilience.
Balance trade-offs
RESONATE aims to highlight and balance trade-offs in decision making to deliver user-oriented recommendations and decision support.
Project objectives
Provide a reference guide
Provide a reference guide of forest system resilience indicators for diverse biogeographic and socio-economic contexts to assess resilience in socio-ecological forest systems.
Resilience dashboard
Develop a resilience dashboard as an operational tool to monitor and indicate how to enhance future resilience of socio-ecological forest systems at regional scales. With this dashboard we will be targeting a range of forest sector stakeholders along the value chain.
Inform Forest Stakeholders about hotspots of disturbance
Inform Forest Stakeholders about hotspots of disturbance change via a continental-scale mapping of current and potential future forest disturbances. Based on this disturbance hotspot map, we will develop tailored management approaches that enhance biodiversity and ensure resilience in the face of changing disturbance regimes by identifying key drivers of forest resilience.
Identify drivers of forest-based value chain resilience
Identify drivers of forest-based value chain resilience in 20 cases of value chains covering the European, national, and regional level. We will then quantify and synthesize the effects of the resilience drivers through a user-friendly tool, the ‘perception-effect matrix.’
Inform policy makers
Inform policy makers about resilience demands through a ‘resilience ladder’ which is providing collected knowledge about forest owner’s capacity to adapt to climatic, demand and policy changes. This resilience ladder will also include policy recommendations to enhance biodiversity and increase forest resilience at different places and scales across Europe.
Raise awareness
Raise awareness among decision makers, stakeholders, and the general public about the vulnerability of forest systems to climate change and biodiversity loss, and the importance of adaptive management to enhance resilience. We will do this through targeted dissemination and outreach activities, including online tutorials, video clips, and sector specific recommendations.
Develop resilience modules for university courses
Develop ‘Resilience Modules’ for University Courses. We will work on three courses at different academic levels, one for BSc, one for MSc/PhD, and one for continuing education of professionals to educate current and future professionals on enhancing resilience to climate change and disturbances in forest systems.