Future multifunctional forests and their disturbance risk in the changing climate

Forests and their ability to uptake and store carbon are crucial on Finland's road to reach carbon neutrality in 2035. The important role of forests in mitigating climate change has been acknowledged. In addition, changes in forest management can enhance the carbon fluxes and storage significantly. On the other hand, forest disturbances have increased in Europe over the past decades and they are predicted to increase even more in the future with the changing climate. Such development is threatening the mitigation potential of forests. In addition to carbon uptake, forests provide numerous other ecosystem services, such as timber and recreational values. The role of forests is also significant for conserving biodiversity, the foundation of ecosystem services. The FOSTER project provides solutions to foster forest resilience with forest management, game and wildlife policies and efficient land use while taking into account the changing forest disturbances. We simulate different forest, land use, and game management scenarios at landscape, regional and national scales and assess their economic, social and ecological impacts using metrics for different ecosystem services. We analyse both short- and long-term changes and resilience of forests as well as their ability to adapt to the changing climate and the forest disturbances.