News

This press release has been published by EurekAlert! and AlphaGalileo.   To support its objective of advancing forest management practices in Europe with a focus on climate and biodiversity, the EU-funded ForestPaths project has published a new feature examining the current landscape of policies in the sector. At a time when both environmental challenges and the measures addressing them are growing in scope and complexity, navigating...

ForestPaths partners European Forest Institute (EFI) and VITO have developed an open-source Python tool - aiphoria - with Cleo Orfanidou (EFI) leading the effort, along with Järvikylä (EFI) and Gustavo Ezequiel Martinez (VITO). The tool is designed to dynamically assess and visualise wood material flows using detailed Sankey diagrams. Developed to support ForestPaths' objectives, aiphoria enables a comprehensive dynamic wood material flow analysis...

ForestPaths member Amelie Müller, from VITO WET (Water and Energy Transition), in collaboration with Timo Diepers from RWTH Aachen University, Arthur Jakobs from Paul Scherrer Institute, and other researchers, have developed an open-source Python tool for time-explicit Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The tool, named bw_timex, provides a more accurate assessment method for environmental impacts by accounting for the timing of processes and emissions and...

A study in 2023, by ForestPaths partner LUKE, offers critical insights into the role of forest lands in mitigating climate change, emphasising the importance of high-resolution biomass maps generated through remote sensing technologies, particularly in Finland.  In the EU, forest land is crucial in the Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) sector, absorbing nearly 9% of total emissions from other sectors in 2019. However, forest...

ForestPaths just published its long-awaited dataset of maps of annual forest disturbances across 38 European countries derived from the Landsat satellite data archive. The previous European Forest Disturbance Atlas covered the period 1985-2021, which project partner Technical University of Munich has now extended to include the years from 1985 to 2023.  European Forest Disturbance Atlas Not only is the time frame lengthened, but there is...

The latest blog post from VITO Remote Sensing – written by ForestPaths member Wanda De Keersmaecker – explains how the project uses earth observation data and machine learning to create high-resolution (10 m) maps of forest structure, including the first prototype maps of Flanders (Belgium). One of the main ForestPaths’ objectives is to co-design, quantify and evaluate policy pathways to optimise the contribution of forests to climate change mitigation....

ForestPaths has released the second publication from its ForestPaths Features series – an information note tackling the question of How can models help achieve climate and biodiversity targets in the forest and forest-based sectors. The note introduces ForestPaths' next generation assessment framework, detailing its key methodological features, concepts, definitions, variables, and expected simulation results. Through collaboration with stakeholders,...

This press release has been published by EurekAlert! and AlphaGalileo.  As part of the public call for evidence aiming to set an EU climate target for 2040, the Horizon Europe project ForestPaths issued a policy brief, outlining evidence-based suggestions to bolster the role of forests and wood products in achieving climate neutrality. Reaching climate neutrality by 2050 is crucial to fighting climate change, preserving the environment,...

The new informational series ForestPaths Features is a stream of result-oriented materials produced within the scope of ForestPaths, which puts the spotlight on the project’s insights and results in easy-to-understand and concise formats to increase awareness and accessibility to stakeholder groups, including policymakers, research communities and forest practitioners.  By clarifying critical insights into clear and digestible formats, ForestPaths...

In December 2022, ForestPaths issued its first co-funded publication: the EFISCEN-Space 1.0 model documentation and manual, published by Wageningen Environmental Research. EFISCEN-Space is among the existing models which ForestPaths will enhance as part of its novel integrated assessment framework in order to capture updated European forest composition and structure information, include disturbance impacts and better address diverse forest management...