About
TRANSFORMIT aims to merge societal demands with biodiversity conservation through an integrative approach. To achieve this, we will expand on existing practical and scientific knowledge related to Integrative Forest Management (IFM) and foster synergetic collaborations through our seven Living Labs, and a virtual Forest Knowledge Gateway.
What we do
Connecting 16 institutions from 12 different countries, and coordinated by the European Forest Institute, TRANSFORMIT’s aims to serve as catalyst for knowledge exchange, capacity building, and collaboration among forest managers, researchers, policymakers, and local communities.
Our main objective is to improve and showcase the effectiveness of Integrative Forest Management (IFM) for integrating multiple, and sometimes opposing, societal demands to forests. We aim to provide tangible examples of sustainable forest management principles “in action” through our seven Living Labs. With hands-on demonstrations, field trials, decision support tools and collaborative workshops, we will enable stakeholders to witness the practical application of IFM approaches. Eventually, we will share insights and lessons learnt through the Forest Knowledge Gateway in an audience-centric way. With our stakeholder engagement activities, we aim to create new synergies between diverse stakeholders, including forestry bodies, forest managers forest owners, research institutions, certification bodies and other interested actors. We also aim to support EU forest policy targets related to the EU Green Deal, Biodiversity Strategy, and the EU Forest Strategy 2030, by developing a set of evidence-based guidelines for upscaling IFM recommendations.
Introducing our new working definition of Integrative Forest Management (IFM)
This working definition is our first step to clarify IFM in practice and to engage with our stakeholders and partners. By using this working definition as a foundation, our TRANSFORMIT project aims to promote sustainable forest management that balances environmental, economic, and social outcomes across various forest types and contexts.
Integrative forest management (IFM) aims at integrating biodiversity conservation and global change adaptation into forest management for the sustainable provision of multiple ecosystem services. It is guided by natural and diverse forest structures, compositions, and dynamics to support ecosystem functioning and resilience. Its management practices consistently consider the tree, stand, and landscape scale and employ different silvicultural intensities, including intentionally unmanaged forests. IFM can be applied in any type of forest to achieve integrated environmental, economic, and social outcomes.
Our objectives
Promote Integrative Forest Management (IFM) by establishing seven Living Labs
across Europe, serving as models to spread IFM principles and best practices.
Develop a Stakeholder Engagement Platform
for intensive collaboration, mutual learning and sharing of knowledge to exploit synergies and minimise trade-offs in forest management.
Create a set of practical IFM recommendations and evidence-based guidelines
for upscaling and addressing multiple objectives of forest management.
Demonstrate and verify IFM actions to help achieve EU forest policy targets
as part of the EU Green Deal, Biodiversity Strategy and the EU Forest Strategy 2030.
Demonstrate approaches for the diversification of IFM methods
and appropriate use with a strong involvement of practitioners.
Promote the use of Decision Support Tools, (DSTs)
forest modelling and innovative technologies to address effects of different forest management approaches on ecosystem services provision and climate change effects.
Share knowledge on IFM
via workshops, webinars and events, and connect with science and practice stakeholders beyond Europe, and specifically with China and North America.
Apply context-dependent interdisciplinary methods
to create and promote knowledge on IFM practices fostering climate change adaptation and biodiversity conservation, resilience enhancement and ecosystem restoration.
Develop educational material to support teaching of IFM
in curricula of universities and forestry colleges.
Our Chinese partner project
INTEFORMA (Integrative forest management for multiple ecosystem services and enhanced biodiversity) connects 5 institutions and universities to advance Integrative Forest Management (IFM). Coordinated by the Chinese Academy of Forestry, the project expands scientific and practical knowledge, promotes cross-sector collaboration, and aligns societal needs with biodiversity conservation through the establishment of over ten field living labs across different climatic zones.
In line with the scope of the Administrative Arrangement between the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China and the European Commission on a Co-funding Mechanism for the period 2021-2024 to support collaborative research projects under the Food, Agriculture and Biotechnologies (FAB) and the Climate Change and Biodiversity (CCB) flagship initiatives, this project has received funding from the National Key Research and Development of China under Grant Agreement No 023YFE0112800.