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A European Remote Sensing System for the Early Detection and Mapping of Forest Vulnerabilities and Risks

EIP-AGRI PRACTICE ABSTRACT by Università degli Studi di Firenze (UniFi) Healthy forests are essential to rural livelihoods, biodiversity, and the bioeconomy. However, they are under increasing threat from storms, droughts, pests, diseases, and fires. These dangers often develop quietly and, if not identified early, can cause significant economic and ecological damage. The FORWARDS project is […]

EIP-AGRI PRACTICE ABSTRACT by Università degli Studi di Firenze (UniFi)

Healthy forests are essential to rural livelihoods, biodiversity, and the bioeconomy. However, they are under increasing threat from storms, droughts, pests, diseases, and fires. These dangers often develop quietly and, if not identified early, can cause significant economic and ecological damage. The FORWARDS project is developing an innovative sensing system that can quickly identify and map forest vulnerabilities and risks across Europe.

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– 17-09-2026

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

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– 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.
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