Project PathFinder

Duration: September 2022 – August 2026

Full title of the project: Towards an Integrated Consistent European LULUCF Monitoring and Policy Pathway Assessment Framework

All in all, 23 research organizations across Europe take part in the four-year EU-funded PathFinder endeavor to improve Europe’s forest monitoring capability – helping increase carbon storage and stop biodiversity loss in forests.

Forests are central to Europe’s economies, climate, and biodiversity

Firstly, the PathFinder project aims to develop a common monitoring system of Europe’s forests. This is important because coherent forest monitoring ensures updated and consistent information about greenhouse gas emissions from forests across Europe. Through the PathFinder project we will standardize the way these data are collected across Europe and harmonize the way this information is shared. In addition, the EU requires policies that foster a forest-based bioeconomy that help mitigate climate change and promote biodiversity. Currently, decision making is hampered because timely and reliable information is missing.

A PathFinder method for climate mitigation and adaptation in Europe

A second aim of the EU-funded PathFinder project is to develop models that can project how European forests can contribute to climate mitigation and adaptation under various scenarios, using different natural and socio-economic drivers.

And the third project aim, where PathFinder scientists, together with stakeholders – including policymakers, landowners, forest managers, and nature & biodiversity conservationists – set forward to mobilize their understanding and evidence in ways that can help link short-term decisions to long-term outcomes, thus providing more effective and resilient future forest management pathways.

The PathFinder project is divided into six work packages:

1. Field data collection – Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Spain
2. A mapping and estimation platform for LULUCF and biodiversity monitoring – Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE)
3. Forest and land management scenarios – Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VUA), Netherlands
4. Policy and pathway assessment – Albert-Ludwigs University Freiburg (ALU), Germany
5. Communication, dissemination, and exploitation – European Landowners’ Organization (ELO), Belgium
6. Project management – Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO), Norway

Forest Management Institute (FMI) is working on the project on WP1 tasks, where it is managing the task work: Field Data Collection Management System. In addition, FMI is working on tasks under WP2, where FMI experts are managing the work on the task: Statistically reliable estimates over a combination of field and remote sensing data. The FMI team brings its own nFIEESTA system to the project. On behalf of FMI, the project team of the National Forest Inventory Analytical Centre at the Kroměříž branch is working on the project.

Contact person: Radim Adolt, adolt.radim@uhul.cz, Forest Management Institute, branch Kroměříž

More information about project PathFinder