The Challenge
Wood use is increasing globally, with demand estimated to significantly surpass supply, increasing the pressure to increase forest areas and growth. Forests play an important role in in the fight against climate change and are crucial for biodiversity and the bioeconomy. However, climate change is also causing direct challenges to forests and the bioeconomy, due to increasing biotic and abiotic threats affecting forest health and causing severe economic losses. Better forest management is needed to make forests more resistant to the cross-border threats of pests, droughts and wildfires that are exacerbated by climate change, to strengthen their resilience and capacity and to enable new economic opportunities for forest-based value chains.
OptiForValue, a Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU) research project, is working on these challenges and contributing to optimised forest-based value chains for high-value applications and improved forest management. OptiForValue aligns with the goals of the EU Forest Strategy, a European initiative focused on creating a comprehensive forest knowledge base, that will allow Member States, forest owners and forest managers to improve their response to growing pressures on forests and strengthen forest resilience and bioeconomy.
Programme:
HORIZON Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023-R-02)
Type of Action:
Research and Innovation Action
Duration:
1 September 2024 – 31 August 2028 (48 months)
Consortium:
17 partners from 7 European countries
Coordinator:
Luke Natural Resources Institute Finland
Total Budget:
~ €5 million
Objectives
Objective 1:
Develop and upgrade non-invasive solutions for forest health monitoring and wood quality control.
Objective 2:
Develop forest management methods to restore and enhance forest health and increase biodiversity.
Objective 3:
Develop operational capability for agile value management.
Objective 4:
Gain a deep understanding of the environmental and social impacts of the forestry solutions and their economic feasibility.
Objective 5:
Demonstrate possibilities for forest value chain optimisation via local multi-actor studies and data analysis across entire value chains, from forest inventory and operations to transport, storage and processing.
Objective 6:
Increase co-creation with knowledge exchange between regional and local forestry actors to develop innovation capacity, encourage deployment of solutions & maximise uptake of new opportunities.
Expected Results
- The development of new high-value engineered wood products from existing resources as well as from wood damaged by snow, insects, fire, and drought.
- Adjustments in forest management to meet future alternative demands for high-value forest products.
- Early warning indicators for declining tree health and wood quality.
- Assessment of possibilities to increase resilience via tree breeding & forest management.
- Guidelines on enhancing forest health and resilience and feedstock and ecosystem service provision.
- Agile operational capacity for higher-value delivery including closer-to-nature forests and woods of different quality.
- Insights for more resilient regional value chains in Central European, Mediterranean and boreal, via case studies in Austria, Spain, Sweden, Finland adaptive to climate change and global markers to enhance supply security and cost competitiveness, with potential applicability to various regions throughout Europe.
- Integrated, robust, scalable and harmonised decision support framework.
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