> News & Events > A Tool for Identifying Forest Areas in Europe Exposed to Systematic Stress Due to Climate Change

A Tool for Identifying Forest Areas in Europe Exposed to Systematic Stress Due to Climate Change

EIP-AGRI PRACTICE ABSTRACT by Swiss Federal Research Institute (WSL) Forests are complex systems and their interaction with and response to climate change are very difficult to predict. Therefore, we use historical and current trends in forest biomass and productivity across Europe to identify areas at risk of natural disturbances or even forest loss.

EIP-AGRI PRACTICE ABSTRACT by Swiss Federal Research Institute (WSL)

Forests are complex systems and their interaction with and response to climate change are very difficult to predict. Therefore, we use historical and current trends in forest biomass and productivity across Europe to identify areas at risk of natural disturbances or even forest loss.

LATEST UPDATES

FORWARDS at the Forest Dialogue in Basel: connecting forest monitoring, science and practice

News release

– 17-09-2026

The project presents its flagship monitoring and evaluation tool, the ForestWard Observatory, to the forest community and gathers their feedback.

The Meaning of Climate-Smart Forestry – A Narrative Literature Review

News release

– 29-07-2026

Climate-smart forestry (CSF) is gaining attention as forests are increasingly expected to support climate action while remaining resilient, biodiverse, and socially relevant. This review shows that the concept brings mitigation, adaptation, and the social dimension into a single discussion, but it is understood in different ways across the scientific literature.

Swiss Forests Under Pressure: Declining Growth Across All Altitudes

News release

– 14-05-2026

Forests play a crucial role in absorbing CO₂ from the atmosphere — but this capacity cannot be taken for granted. A new study published in Functional Ecology (Etzold et al., 2026) draws on 30 years of continuous forest monitoring at 18 sites across Switzerland, spanning elevations from lowland forests at 500 m up to mountain forests near the treeline at almost 1,900 m. The result is one of the most comprehensive long-term assessments of how climate change is affecting forest growth in Central Europe.
Subscribe