Resources

The Forest Restoration Projects Database compiles information on forest restoration projects across Europe from 1990 to 2024. It brings together data from EU-funded programmes and national or local initiatives to make restoration efforts easier to find and understand. The database includes 696 EU-funded projects and 994 national or local projects, covering a wide range of forest and tree-based restoration activities. Projects focused only on non-forest ecosystems were excluded. Overall, the database provides a comprehensive overview of recent forest restoration efforts across Europe.

This policy brief synthesises scientific evidence and practical lessons from SUPERB’s 12 large-scale forest restoration initiatives across Europe, offering concrete guidance for policymakers, forest managers, and stakeholders. It frames forest restoration as a long-term, adaptive process requiring sustained funding, stakeholder engagement, and flexible goals. Addressing climate change and rising disturbances, it highlights shared challenges such as browsing pressure, private owner engagement, and limited climate-adapted planting material. The brief delivers actionable recommendations to scale up resilient, future-oriented forest restoration across Europe.

Urban forestry is not a one-size-fits-all solution; each city and region, with its own unique set of challenges and opportunities, requires tailored strategies. In recognition of the diversity and distinctiveness of urban forestry issues and their potential for mitigating environmental and socioeconomic inequality across the globe, FAO has asked experts around the world to share their views on how urban forests and trees are perceived and managed in their respective geographical areas, bringing together a broad range of regional perspectives. The primary goal of this publication is to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of urban forestry worldwide. By showcasing the regional perspectives, insights, experiences and case studies in urban and peri-urban forestry (UPF), we hope to inspire individuals, communities and policymakers to reimagine their relationships with urban green spaces.

The Simple Multi-attribute Rating Technique (SMART) can be used to identify and rank attributes according to their perceived importance for prioritizing restoration areas.

The Analytic Network Process (ANP) is a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method that extends the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) by allowing for feedback and dependencies between decision elements, creating a network rather than a strict hierarchy. Developed by Thomas Saaty, it's used for complex problems where criteria can influence each other, unlike AHP which assumes independence. The process involves modeling the problem as a network, performing pairwise comparisons, forming a supermatrix, and synthesizing results to find the best alternatives.

Spatial optimisation is the use of mathematical and computational methods to find the best possible allocation of resources in geographic space to meet specific goals, such as maximizing benefits or minimizing costs. It involves defining a problem with decision variables, an objective function (e.g., minimize cost, maximize profit), and constraints, while explicitly representing spatial relationships like distance, adjacency, and connectivity. Applications include land-use planning, urban development, and natural resource management.

Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping (FCM) is a method for visualizing and modeling causal relationships in complex systems using a network of "factors" (nodes) and weighted, directed "arrows" (edges). It combines fuzzy logic with cognitive mapping to represent the strength of influence between concepts, which can be positive, negative, or zero. FCMs are particularly useful for incorporating expert and stakeholder knowledge, especially when quantitative data is unavailable, and are used in areas like health, policy, and decision support.

The article examines how tree-related microhabitats (TreMs), such as cavities, dead branches, and bark structures important for forest biodiversity are distributed across European beech-dominated forests. Using a large dataset from thousands of trees across Europe, the study shows that TreMs are not randomly distributed: they occur far more often on large, old, and dead trees, and their abundance is also influenced by the structure and age of the surrounding forest and landscape.

This series of four videos was produced by the Horizon 2020 CLEARINGHOUSE Project on urban forestry. It will explain you what are Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), what types of NBS exist and how their are designed in terms of delivering urban forestry outcomes.

The educational package produced through the Horizon 2020 CLEARINGHOUSE  is designed to address the insufficient understanding of the importance of trees in urban areas. Intended for educators, the package aims to facilitate the integration of tree-related topics across various subjects. It emphasizes the significance of helping students recognize the importance of trees in their immediate environment and encourages educators to teach about urban trees and forests in a way that inspires students to value and protect these natural elements for the well-being of the planet.

The Community Woodlands Association has produced a series of useful information notes for community woodland groups, covering a wide range of governance, woodland management and community development activities. Each note gives an overview of the topic and signposts to sources of more detailed information: other CWA information notes or external bodies. Many of the general principles are applicable everywhere in the UK but references to funders and regulators are for Scotland only.

Insights from the CLEARINGHOUSE science-policy symposium “Regreening Cities with Nature-based solutions in EU and China” with the event recording.

This report provides background and guidelines for developing a local Urban Forestry Action Plan based on an overview of the status, benefits and potential opportunities for developing urban forestry at a European scale. These guidelines are aimed principally at non-specialist audiences who wish to gain a quick overview of the enormous potential offered by urban forestry to solve social, economic and environmental challenges in cities in alignment with global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Mixed-species forests are proposed to strengthen forest restoration and climate adaptation efforts under increasing drought stress. However, tree growth responses to drought does not always improve with increasing tree diversity, whose effect can shift from positive to negative with increasing drought duration. Functional diversity effects on growth responses are site-specific with contrasting directions (both positive and negative) that can be strengthened during consecutive drought years.

This book chapter discuss options for landscape restoration in Sweden. It highlights different types of restoration and with a special emphasis on prestoration - restoration that simultaneously consider past, present and future conditions. To address landscapes, the chapter considers four critical planning dimensions; land cover, forest age, tree species and forest attributes.

Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF) is being expanded in Queen Elizabeth Forest Park (QEFP) to increase forest resilience to wind, pests, and climate pressures while maintaining timber production and enhancing public and ecological benefits. Historically dominated by even-aged Sitka spruce, QEFP has transitioned toward structurally diverse, mixed-species stands through long-term thinning programmes. Forest Research and Forestry and Land Scotland have jointly implemented and monitored CCF across more than 150 ha, using field surveys, orthophotos, LiDAR and LAI measurements to guide decisions. Engagement with local communities, practitioners and national agencies has ensured transparency and strong social acceptance in this high-visitation landscape. The approach demonstrates that CCF can deliver ecological, hydrological and visual co-benefits and provides a scalable model for wider adoption across Scotland’s public and private forests.

This scientific paper presents and analyse the Swedish forest protection instruments Nature Conservation Agreements and Biotope Protection Areas. These instruments are directed to private forest owners and allow significant flexibility in terms of restoration actions. Overall they complement traditional nature reserves by including a wide range of forest types distributed across all of Sweden.

This systematic review provides a comprehensiv summary of empirical studies analysing the role of landscape fragmentation on the occurrence of conservation relevant species in forest stands. It reviews 172 individual studies of which 43 was subject to a quantitatve meta-analysis. Although the results highlight significant heterogeneity in landscape effects it generally confirms the impact of fragmentation on both species presence and abundance 

This scientific papers present an approach to delineate connectivity forest (CF) that informs landscape- and patch-scale restoration planning. I covers a total of 130,500 ha of CFs mapped across a 1.3 million ha watershed in boreal Sweden. It identifyies restoration hotspots within CFs representing focal areas for local restoration efforts and integrates CFs to effectively strengthen connectivity of the existing conservation network

Forestry restoration efforts in Croatia and Serbia were enhanced through the use of specialised machinery. These machines improved labour efficiency by reducing the need for manual work during site preparation. This approach made restoration activities faster and safer, contributing to the overall success of forest recovery in the demonstration areas.

Improving nursery planning and production in Croatia and Serbia strengthens the site alignment between seedling supply and forest management plans, ecological conditions, and restoration needs. The practice includes habitat-based planning—particularly for sandy soils—and focuses on producing 2+0 container seedlings without root pruning, and planting them in sandy soil substrates. Root pruning is selectively applied depending on soil type and species requirements. Enhanced coordination of seedling demand, improved seed provenance tracking, and the use of climate-adapted species suited to specific site types and soils contribute to better ecological matching. Investments in production processes, monitoring, research, and staff training support the delivery of healthier, site-adapted seedlings. Official controls ensure traceability and quality, with oversight from expert bodies, while health inspections and project-based recommendations help reduce biological risks. Ideal seedling characteristics depend on species and site conditions—particularly soil type—ensuring improved adaptation and restoration success.

Row planting that combines pedunculate oak (Quercus robur L.) with native species such as Prunus spp. and Sorbus spp. enhances tree species diversity and supports forest ecosystem services. Labour efficiency is significantly improved through the use of appropriate machinery for site preparation.

Recent studies (Saini et al., 2025) show that an urban forest of size between 0.75 and 2.5 ha provides a temperature mitigation effect of max 180 m radius around the plot centre and that this effect is more dependent on forest canopy cover density than upon urban forest size. This has important implications in an urban environment where it could be easier to increase the canopy cover of an urban forest than to increase its size.

In Urban Forests and general recreation forests, planting in straight lines bring to a “industrial plantation lines” panorama that doesn’t feel natural and hinder the nature contact experience of the users. A simple solution is to plant in curved lines with different species and shrubs clustered in groups: eventual mortality and growth rate differences will evolve the plot into a natural-looking forest

This study develops and tests a novel composite climate-smart index (ICSF) to assess Climate-Smart Forestry (CSF) in Mediterranean forests, using data from Italian National Forest Inventory (NFI). Eight carefully weighted indicators were applied across three pillars – adaptation, mitigation, and the social dimension – to evaluate CSF in 2005 and 2015. Tree species composition, forest damage, and regeneration were identified as key drivers. The results show a positive trend in CSF values over the last two decades, demonstrating the potential of the ICSF as a practical tool for forest managers to enhance resilience and mitigate climate-related impacts.

This study examines how thinning intensity and tree species composition influence Climate-Smart Forestry (CSF) in long-term experimental plots in Bavaria, Germany. Using a composite CSF index based on nine structural and functional indicators, it compares beech, spruce, and mixed forests under varying thinning regimes. The results show that mixed and broad-leaved forests outperform spruce monocultures, particularly in adaptation, while strong thinning improves structural diversity and resilience. The study highlights the importance of long-term monitoring for adaptive forest management and provides practical insights for aligning forestry practices with climate and sustainability goals.

For a nature restoration project to be successful, several conditions must be met. First and foremost, there must be a real need for restoration. This need must be clarified, someone must be committed to lead the project and landowners, local residents and other stakeholders must be on message. It is also particularly beneficial if the project contributes to increased ecological functionality on a landscape scale. However, for a restoration project to happen, some form of external funding is almost always required. While it often takes time to investigate, describe and document additional required conditions, it is not uncommon for funding opportunities to arise unexpectedly. 

In the Swedish SUPERB demo-site Vindelälven-Juhttátahkka, we have undertaken that through mapping and building a “bank” of objects that are suitable for/in need of restoration. This included descriptions of the current situation, stressors, ownership situation and suggested restoration actions etc. for each specific object. Also objects were ranked according to potential priority, making it easier to take advantage of unexpected opportunities for financing.

Here we exemplify the good practice of “restoration banks” by describing the development and use of a restoration bank for the restoration of land-based routes for reindeer migration along the Vindeln river basin.

Scaling up restoration from one time measures in individual forest stands to actual improved ecological functionality at the landscape level almost always means that more people will be affected and must be involved. More people means more interests, desires and conditions that must be reconciled in order to achieve the goal. However, more people involved can also be a strength by creating a sense of community belonging, possibilities for exchange of experience and knowledge, as well as increased understanding of both the landscape perspective, beyond the individual participant's land or mandate, and the varied conditions other participants are working within.  

In this example of good practice, we describe how collaboration in a regional network has created long-term commitment and clear ecological effects on the ground for the critically endangered white-backed woodpecker in Västerbotten county, Sweden. Based on this example, we describe both success factors and possible risks and pitfalls, as well as providing examples of other similar landscape-based initiatives in Sweden.

The Swiss Ornithological Institute proposed a credit point system to measure the degree of “wildlife-friendliness” on whole farms. In 2008, IP-SUISSE, an organisation for integrated farming and representing a quarter of Swiss farmers, accepted the system as part of their guidelines. Switzerland’s largest super market chain sells most of the IP-SUISSE products. Farmers benefit from bonus payments and from a better public image.

Habitat trees are defined as standing live or dead trees providing ecological niches (microhabitats) such as cavities, bark pockets, large dead branches, epiphytes, cracks, sap runs, or trunk rot. Depending on their characteristics, habitat trees go by different names. Veteran, ancient, or monumental trees are individuals of remarkable age or size, whereas wildlife or cavity trees host animals such as woodpeckers and other cavity-nesting species.

Forest restoration efforts following natural disturbances such as bark beetle outbreak and windstorms in productive forests stands often focus on replacing degraded spruce and pine monocultures with diverse, resilient stands better adapted to climate change. This involves increasing the share of natural regeneration (pioneer species like Betula sp., Populus sp. and Salix sp.) and planting native broadleaved species. However, enhancing and supporting biodiversity in restored stands needs to include management of the biological legacies, such as dead wood, which is crucial for biodiversity. This biological legacy includes important structural elements from existing stands, such as large old trees, dying trees, deadwood and lying decaying wood, windthrow piles, etc. In most cases, these structural elements remain, at least, partially intact as heritage even in the event of very intense disturbances. At the same time, they play an important role in the natural environment of various species and significantly influence the environment and the development of the stand after disturbance. Once these elements are removed from the stand, they cannot be restored in the coming decades. For this reason, these elements must be taken into account during the sanitary and salvage logging operations. This good practice methodology offers optimal solutions to overcome these silvicultural challenges and support effective, climate-resilient forest regeneration.

A multi-disciplinary team of experts synthesized the state of knowledge on drivers and impacts of bark beetle outbreaks in Europe and proposed a comprehensive context-dependent framework for their management.

This scientific article presents a unique database of >170,000 records of ground-based natural disturbance observations in European forests from 1950 to 2019. Reported data confirm a significant increase in forest disturbance in 34 European countries, causing on an average of 43.8 million m3 of disturbed timber volume per year over the 70-year study period. Wind was the most important disturbance agent over the study period (46% of total damage), followed by fire (24%) and bark beetles (17%). Bark beetle disturbance doubled its share of the total damage in the last 20 years. 

This policy brief summarises key findings and recommendations from the analysis of ground-based observations of forest disturbances from 1950-2019 based on data of the Database of Forest Disturbances in Europe (DFDE).  

The book "Das Trittsteinkonzept" describes different elements of nature-protection in managed forests. The most important element is the habitat-tree. That can be a single habitat-tree or a group of them (Waldtrittsteine or stepstones).

A harmonized framework defining and classifying tree-related microhabitats (TreMs) – from cavities to fungi – to make forest biodiversity monitoring more consistent, comparable, and practical across Europe.

To manage extensive calamity damage, forest managers and owners responsible for larger forest areas often have to prioritise reforestation efforts to keep the reforestation efforts managable. One approach to prioritising reforestation areas is the development of a color-coded categorisation system for calamity areas, according to which sites are assigned high to low priority for reforestation.

Forest restoration efforts following large-scale bark beetle outbreaks aim to replace degraded spruce monocultures with more diverse, resilient stands that are better adapted to changing climate conditions. The use of natural succession and pioneer tree species represents a key tool for restoring areas affected by extensive disturbances. Successful implementation requires assessment of the natural regeneration potential, taking into account both the local site conditions and long-term management objectives. This good practice methodology presents solutions to address specific challenges associated with large-scale calamity clearings. These include microclimatic harshness that limits the use of certain tree species, potential shortages of planting material and constraints in establishing structurally complex forests.

“Forest Invest Podcast”, produced by The ForestLink, aims to bring expert insights on creating profitable and impactful forest investments. Through interviews with professionals from across the forestry asset spectrum, it shares real-world stories, insights, and best practice guidance to support the development of profitable and impactful forest investments.

The ForestMoocForChange is an 8-week free online course on continuous-cover forestry (CCF) across Europe, exploring how to manage forests for timber, biodiversity and resilience. It is available in 3 languages: English, French and German.

This policy and practice brief brings together insights from the four EU Horizon 2020 Green Deal “Restoration Cluster” projects, SUPERB, MERLIN, REST-COAST and WaterLANDS, offering recommendations on how to activate stakeholder engagement for the successful delivery of NRR targets, as well as concrete examples and tools to support stakeholder engagement throughout the process.

Ecological Site Classification (ESC) is a web-based decision support system to help forest managers and planners select tree species that are ecologically suited to particular sites, instead of selecting a species and attempting to modify the site to suit.

The online portal Waldinfo.NRW is a German language resource which provides open access to comprehensive information about the forests of North Rhine-Westphalia – their many functions, values and sustainable management. The portal features interactive digital maps covering a wide range of forest-related topics, from forest cover and ecology to forest management, nature conservation, recreation, risk prevention, and forest administration. By making this information easily accessible, Waldinfo.NRW aims to support forest owners in adapting forest management to the challenges of climate change – including the reforestation of large damaged areas.

All information is presented in a modern, user-friendly format, including practical tools such as an interactive advisory function for reforestation planning. In addition, the portal provides links to key publications from the State Forest Administration and other relevant online resources from the regional government. The platform is managed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Consumer Protection of the state of North-Rhine Westphalia.

*This platform is only available in German.

ForestGALES is a computer-based decision support system and hybrid-mechanistic model that assesses the risk of wind damage to forests in Britain and in several other countries, allowing to compare the impacts of different silvicultural practices.

The DRAAF Bourgogne-Franche-Comté carried out a study to assess the implementation of aid from the Recovery Plan for the renewal of damaged stands and to describe the strategies deployed by owners to restore bark beetle stands.

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.

This resource offers practical guidance for improving how forest restoration is monitored in Spain and other southern European regions. Effective restoration depends on using the right indicators, yet many of the indicators proposed in the EU Nature Restoration Regulation (NRR) have raised concerns. To address this, the study brings together the insights of more than sixty experts through a Delphi consultation.

This study it provides valuable insights into the development of the EU-NRR—the EU's first directly applicable and legally binding forest-related policy instrument.

In the theory of decision making, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), also analytical hierarchy process, is a structured technique for organizing and analyzing complex decisions, based on mathematics and psychology.

Biodiversity Metric is a biodiversity footprinting tool. It contains an excel-based template for calculating biodiversity net gain by UK Government