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Category: Climate change

What if the forest could look back at you?

What if the forest could look back at you?

Published July 2, 2026 by Rahel Könen

Thoughts on forest, attention and reconnection after the project relating forests – written by Marianne Cornil

It was dusk in a Norwegian forest. The group moved slowly along a path, leading further and further in, both into the forest and into the imagination. A poem first stimulated the intellect toward a different perspective. The whispering of the trees, sounds of the underground, poetic words and dancing lights, then underground sounds shifted attention. Each step was a response to the forest; the forest responded in turn.

A masked figure appeared between the trunks, silent and still and looked at us, unfolding the stories of the forest.

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From Woodpeckers to WoodcuttersWageningen group

From Woodpeckers to Woodcutters

Published June 25, 2026 by Annabel Burg

A Wageningen University Research Visit to Sweden’s Forests

By Annabel Burg, Sietse van der Woude, Maximilian Schulte, Linus Bockenhoff, Johannes Reiche, Gert-Jan Nabuurs; and photos by Sietse van der Woude

On the morning of Sunday, we had finally arrived in Umeå. The trip had been months in the making: a research exchange between Wageningen University & Research (WUR) and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), woven into a packed week of field visits, industry meetings, and policy discussions stretching across the country. By the end of the week, our group of six (Gert-Jan, Maximilian, Annabel, Linus, Sietse, and Johannes) would cover roughly the length of Sweden, from the boreal forests of Umeå in the North to the mixed woodlands near Gothenburg in the South. And we exchanged on several projects where we collaborate with EFI: from Wildcard to FORWARDS and Monifun.

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When forests return: carbon gains and biodiversity trade-offsMeasurements in the forest

When forests return: carbon gains and biodiversity trade-offs

Published May 20, 2026 by Lorenzo Orzan

Blogpost by Lorenzo Orzan

Across Europe, something quiet but powerful is happening. As people leave rural areas, forests are coming back, slowly reclaiming former meadows and pastures. At first glance, this seems like good news. More forests mean more carbon stored and, potentially, more biodiversity. But is it really that simple?

In our recent study As forests reclaim the land: Latitudinal variations in carbon-biodiversity trade-offs under natural forest expansion in Italy published in Forest Ecology and Management, we followed this process from North to South, tracking how ecosystems change over time as forests naturally regenerate. By comparing sites at different stages, from open grasslands to forests up to 75 years old, we were able to reconstruct what happens when trees return.

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SimInForest Project – building an innovative approach to link marteloscope exercises to simulation models

SimInForest Project – building an innovative approach to link marteloscope exercises to simulation models

Published February 18, 2026 by amschuck
SimInForest Project – building an innovative approach to link marteloscope exercises to simulation models
The marteloscope Sailershausen 2.

Written by Andreas Schuck, Senior Researcher at the European Forest Institute

For forest managers, it is quite challenging to integrate multiple forest management objectives and increase forest resilience considering our uncertain climatic and socioeconomic future. Marteloscopes, field plots in which every tree has been mapped and measured, are a great tool for silviculture training addressing these management challenges. With the help of a software that runs on mobile devices (“I+” software package) we can perform virtual silviculture interventions directly in Marteloscopes and retrieve the results immediately. This way, training participants can observe the impact of their interventions on various ecosystem services and discuss their results and applied silvicultural practices. This training approach has become very popular in the past ten years and a large network of marteloscope sites has emerged across Europe and beyond.

However, so far quantitative analyses of marteloscope exercise results are limited to comparisons of the forest stand before and immediately after a single silvicultural intervention. Currently, potential stand evolution after a virtual thinning and potential management prescriptions are mainly discussed based on the expertise of marteloscope trainers and the participants but lack quantitative support. Here, SimInForest “Combining field exercises and simulations on marteloscopes to develop integrative and sustainable silviculture approaches” comes into play.

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From pixels to pines: exploring Bulgaria’s Rhodopes ForestsExploring Bulgarian forests

From pixels to pines: exploring Bulgaria’s Rhodopes Forests

Published February 4, 2026 by Gesche Schifferdecker

#RestorationStory by Annabel Burg, Sietse van der Woude, and Niamh Kelly

It was the last day of June 2025 when our small group set out from Schiphol Airport. Traveling with us, three PhD students from Wageningen University and Research, were two colleagues: Gert-Jan Nabuurs, Professor of European Forest Resources at Wageningen University, and Thomas Groen, Associate Professor of Remote Sensing at the University of Twente. Our destination was Bulgaria – a country that, until then, most of us knew little about. We were curious, not only about its history and culture, but especially about its landscapes. Despite its modest size, Bulgaria is blessed with mountains, rivers, caves, and lakes. More than one-third of the country is covered by forests, making it one of Europe’s most densely forested and biodiverse nations.

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Where Europe could rewild: mapping the forests of the futureProforestation in Germany (photo: Gesche Schifferdecker)

Where Europe could rewild: mapping the forests of the future

Published January 26, 2026 by Gesche Schifferdecker

Across Europe, landscapes are quietly changing. Mountain farms and pastures are being abandoned, forest management is easing in some regions, and climate and policy pressures are reshaping how land is used. For some, these trends raise concerns. For others, they open a powerful question: where could nature return, at scale, if we let it?

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relating forests: Listening to the stories of European woodlands

relating forests: Listening to the stories of European woodlands

Published December 15, 2025 by Rahel Könen

By Marianne Cornil

What stories do forests tell us when we truly listen? What imaginaries emerge from the rustling of branches, from leaf-covered forest floors, from moss at the foot of ancient trees? The European project „relating forests,” co-funded by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme, brought together four artists through a consortium of three organizations: TheatreFragile (Germany), NOBA – Norwegian Bio Arts Arena (Norway), and Cultures Éco-Actives (France). Together, storyteller Anne Dromzee, choreographer Rebekka Sartre and mask theater makers Luzie Ackers and Marianne Cornil explored these questions through an interdisciplinary artistic approach rooted in local ecosystems and cultural mythologies.

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Researching the unacknowledged: A young Belgian researcher’s journey to understand the hidden world of forest soils

Researching the unacknowledged: A young Belgian researcher’s journey to understand the hidden world of forest soils

Published November 26, 2025 by Rina Tsubaki

By Rina Tsubaki.

Soil might not be the first thing you notice when walking through a nearby forest. But it’s a quiet, hidden guardian that our forests depend on. It connects trees, insects, and fungi in ways we often overlook. Many soil organisms feed on dead plant residues, making important nutrients available to plants. Additionally, while feeding and digging, they incorporate organic carbon into the soil, improving soil structure and water holding capacity. Healthy, biodiverse soil is therefore essential for making forests resilient and multifunctional and cannot be ignored by anyone working in sustainable forest management.

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Turning local resilience solutions into lasting Mediterranean policy action 

Turning local resilience solutions into lasting Mediterranean policy action 

Published November 25, 2025 by ResAlliance

Building Mediterranean landscape resilience requires moving from project-level innovation to structural integration within EU and national policy frameworks. The ResAlliance project offers timely input for upcoming CAP and Green Deal updates…

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