On 27 March 2026, during a #forwardsEU online meeting with 40 partners and team members, we kicked off five third-party projects 🌱

Let's welcome:

🔹 Forest-SIF-Europe
🔹 ADAPT-FOREST
🔹 ForStress
🔹 FORBEECH
🔹 UPLINK

Learn more: forwards-project.eu/new-third-pa...

900 participants, one shared goal: improving how we monitor Europe’s forests.

At Swedish Kartdagar in Uppsala, #forwardsEU highlighted the role of remote sensing, open data, and the ForestWard Observatory in strengthening European forest monitoring.

🔗 forwards-project.eu/forwards-at-...

The final #ForwardsEU podcast episode is out! 🎧

This time, we focus on the Forest Ward Observatory we are prototyping and how it can help improve the way forest data is collected and used across Europe.

Listen to the episode on ICONS Innovation Strategy Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/5OGq...

👀 ForestPaths coordinator Hans Verkerk (EFI) took part in the 1st episode of the #ForwardsEU podcast.

👉 Find the episode on the FORWARDS Project's Spotify channel!

Listen to the Sound of Forests: FORWARDS Launches Its Podcast — Forwards Produced by ICONS and available on Spotify as part of the ICONS Innovation Stories series, the new FORWARDS podcast offers a window into the health of Europe’s forests and the innovative technologies ...

How much do we really know about forests under climate pressure? 🌲

We are launching our new podcast! Produced by ICONS Innovation starategies, Ep.1 is out on Spotify🎙️

Learn more:: forwards-project.eu/listen-to-th...

#TheSoundOfForests #ForwardsEU

How does it feel to be a tree? 🌲

Quick stretch in tree pose between sessions at #ForwardsEU Annual Meeting in Florence (3–5 Feb).

Highlights includes the ForestWard Observatory updates, talks about forests indicators & stakeholders, and next steps.

Stay tuned for mroe!

Enhancing Forest Insights: Deliverable D3.2 Introduces Advanced Tools for CSF Assessment — Forwards As a forest owner or policymaker, you want your forests to be more resilient in the years to come. But how can you determine the best management options?

How can policymakers identify the most resilient management options? 🌲

In #ForwardsEU, researchers from the Università degli Studi del Molise developed 2 easy-to-use web apps that let users upload forest data and evaluate how climate smart their management practices are.

More: tinyurl.com/xbdxvtrh

Where Forests Hold the Climate Together — Forwards At COP30, the Tropical Forests Forever Facility signals a cultural shift: protecting trees by pairing science, finance, and Indigenous stewardship

At #COP30 in Belém, the Tropical Forests Forever Facility was launched to support countries preserving their tropical forests.

It highlights the global need for reliable monitoring systems, the same direction we pursue at #ForwardsEU with the ForestWard Observatory.

Read more: tinyurl.com/2druu4e5

We have published #ForwardsEU second EIP-AGRI practice abstract!

It focuses on a tool enabling foresters and wood industry stakeholders to identify whether their areas of interest are affected by climatic and environmental stressors.

Read it at 👉 forwards-project.eu/wp-content/u...

Hands-On Approaches to Climate-Smart Forestry — Forwards The Climate-Smart Forestry Workshop, held in Wageningen, brought together experts from across Europe to share research insights and foster collaboration within the CSF Network.

A couple of weeks ago, the Climate-Smart Forestry Workshop at Wageningen Environmental Research brought together experts from across Europe to share research insights and foster collaboration within the CSF Network 🤝

Learn more in #ForwardsEU latest news: forwards-project.eu/hands-on-app...

🔎 A joint study by #ForwardsEU team from the University of Molise and the Technical University of Munich, explores how thinning intensity and tree species composition influence the climate-smart performance of forests in Bavaria, Germany.

Find the paper at 🔗 linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii...

FORWARDS will present its Restoration Indicators at the MoniFun workshop in Madrid — Forwards FORWARDS will join the Monifun workshop in Madrid on 8 October 2025 to present its work on Restoration Indicators for Climate Smart Forestry in Europe

Today #ForwardsEU will join the MoniFun project workshop in Madrid to present its work on Restoration Indicators for Climate Smart Forestry in Europe.

Learn more: forwards-project.eu/forwards-wil...

Old Forests in the Tropics Are Getting Younger and Losing Carbon - Eos New research quantifying the global impact of forest age transitions found that 140 million tons of aboveground carbon are lost per year because of old-growth forests being replaced by younger stands.

#ForwardsEU recent open-access article on the global impact of forest age transitions in the carbon cycle has been published on Eos.org.

Find the study at: eos.org/articles/old...

Here is another publication supported by #ForwardsEU 📃🌲

The paper focuses on the leverage of Sentinel-1 C-band radar data to effectively detect fine-scale natural and logging-related canopy disturbances in tropical forests.

Find it at: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

📢 A new paper supported by #ForwardsEU is now available online!

Also featured on the FISE (Forest Information System for Europe) website, the research studies how the age of forests affects the global carbon cycle.

Find it at: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

📃 A new paper under #ForwardsEU!

🔎 The new study analyses how forest age is shifting globally between 2010 and 2020 and what this means for the carbon cycle.

Read the full paper 👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New Call for Grants on Citizen Engagement — Forwards Deadline: 12 October 2025

Did you see the new #ForwardsEU call for grants? 🔍

If not, learn about the G-05-2025 call supporting projects that bring citizens to the forefront of forest restoration and #ClimateSmartForestry governance.

Deadline is 12 October, learn more at 🔗 forwards-project.eu/new-call-for...

Five new FORWARDS-funded projects to characterise European forest disturbances kicked off — Forwards CAEFD, CE-ReDiFor, HALO-FARM, Image4Dist, TREAD

🏆🌲 Here are five more projects which were awarded #ForwardsEU grants to study the characterisation of European forest disturbances

CAEFD, CE-ReDiFor, HALO-FARM, Image4Dist, TREA: discover them in our news release 🔗 bit.ly/4m6ZpKf

@remote-sensing-slu.bsky.social @efieuropeanforest.bsky.social

New deadline for #ForwardsEU grants❗

Calls G-03-2025 and G-04-2025 deadline application has been extended to 21 Sept (21:00 UTC)📣

Both aim to link ground & remote sensing data to assess climate impacts on trees and forests.

Apply at 👉 efi.int/grants-train...

@remote-sensing-slu.bsky.social

🌲 Can digital tools help forests adapt to climate change? At Università del Molise, three new web apps are being developed to monitor forests under climate stress.

Watch the interview of our partner Giovanni Santuopoli to learn more ▶️ youtu.be/qc3qaJj8MEo

#ForwardsEU

🌲📹 We spoke with our coordinator, Professor Ruben Valbuena (@remote-sensing-slu.bsky.social) about how #ForwardsEU, thanks to its Forestward Observatory, can improve the resilience of European forests by providing timely information.

Watch the interview: youtu.be/_nOe9gox79Q

New Calls for Grants open! — Forwards G-03-2025 and G-04-2025

New #ForwardsEU grant calls open! 🚨

🔹 G-03-2025: Linking stand-level information and remote sensing for climate impact forest monitoring

🔹 G-04-2025: Providing temporally resolved ecosystem-level information on the effects of climatic drivers in near real-time.

Apply: bit.ly/4nyj6wn

Launch of climate impact forest monitoring pilot projects — Forwards The inauguration of the first project financed by the FORWARDS calls for grants

🌱 The first pilot projects under the #ForwardsEU grant call have officially launched, marking a major milestone in climate impact forest monitoring and sparking new research to face the impact of climate change on EU forests.

🔗 Discover more about the launch: forwards-project.eu/launch-of-cl...

New paper! 📃🌲

#ForwardsEU team at @luke.fi recently published a new paper researching how plot size and the rarity of old-growth forests affect the resulting accuracy associated with the remote sensing mapping of old-growth forests.

Find the paper at: cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/...

FORWARDS at EGI2025 — Forwards Coordinator team attended the conference in Santander, Spain

📸 At the #EGI2025 conference in Santander, Professor Ruben Valbuena together with his team from SLU presented #ForwardsEU work on the ForestWard Observatory.

You can learn a summary of their presentation here 👉 forwards-project.eu/forwards-at-...

New study developed under #ForwardsEU and other European projects 📃🌲

The research developed a dynamic model for tree recruitment across European forests, pinpointing how climate influences the quantity and species composition of trees.

Find it at: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Swedish Minister for EU Affairs meets FORWARDS Coordinator — Forwards Official visit to the Department of Forest Remote Sensing at SLU

📸 On 8 April, the Swedish Minister for European Union Affairs visited the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences!

During the visit, our coordinator Professor Ruben Valbuena also presented the work we are carrying out at #ForwardsEU.

More at: forwards-project.eu/swedish-mini...

A new paper has been published under #ForwardsEU!

The research shows that suppressed Norway spruce trees prioritize root growth right after selection harvests, supporting stability and nutrient uptake while providing immediate climate gains.

Find it 🔗 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

If trees could talk: Sparking conversations through forest stories — Forwards An article by Elaine Parlade, BOKU Vienna

What are the personal stories we connect to forests? 🌲💭

Elaine Parlade, PhD candidate at our partner BOKU Vienna wrote an article for #ForwardsEU reflecting on the answers shared by the consortium during the last General Assembly in February.

Read it at 🔗 forwards-project.eu/if-trees-cou...

🌲 This year #InternationalDayofForests is dedicated to the vital connection between food and forests.

At #ForwardsEU, we are committed to monitoring forests and collecting crucial data to help preserve them.

You can learn more about our project at: forwards-project.eu