CA19128 - Pan-European Network for Climate Adaptive Forest Restoration and Reforestation (PEN-CAFoRR)

The capacity of forests to mitigate climate change is underutilized. More than two billion hectares of degraded areas worldwide need restoration; in many countries timely reforestation following harvests, disturbances, and land abandonment is lagging; and forest management could be sustainably intensified to sequester more carbon. Increasingly, global change and human-induced disturbances raise the need for accelerating restoration and reforestation programs, although consensus is lacking on which techniques to use and what objectives to pursue. Indeed, a confusing terminology and multiple, often conflicting interests fuel the debate on what constitutes success and appropriate forest management objectives. Additionally, knowledge gained locally is not widely shared and vice versa. Thus there is an urgent need to broaden the experience on climate adaptive forest restoration and reforestation (CAFoRR). Underlying these urgent need, the developing bioeconomy will sharply increase the demand for forest products. The PEN-CAFoRR network of experts from Europe and beyond will respond to these challenges by addressing the entire cycle of forest restoration and reforestation in different ecosystems, by broadening the dissemination of knowledge, and by facilitating an increased scale of planning and implementation of CAFoRR programs. Specifically, PEN-CAFoRR will provide new guidelines for 1) setting restoration and reforestation goals, 2) decision making on need and ways of restoration, 3) selection, 4) production and quality control of targeted forest reproductive material, 5) establishment techniques, and 6) post-planting protection and silviculture. One result will be an open-access database comprising state-of-the-art information on techniques and guidelines of European CAFoRR.