Horizon Europe OptiForValue Project: Optimizing forest operations for sustainable forest management and high-value applications
- Type Project
- Status Firmado
- Execution 2024 -2028
- Assigned Budget 4.997.361,25 €
- Scope Europeo
- Main source of financing Horizonte
- Project website Proyecto OptiForValue
Europe's forests, vital for competitiveness and sustainability, are under threat. Growing global demand for wood, biodiversity loss, and climate change jeopardize their health and economic viability. With these challenges in mind, the EU-funded OptiForValue project will develop an interconnected modeling framework, a participatory process, and cutting-edge technologies to foster sustainable and resilient forest value chains.
With case studies spanning Austria, Finland, Spain, and Sweden, the project seeks a transformative impact: a 10% reduction in timber damage, a 3% increase in added value, and a 5% increase in the forestry workforce. Through collaboration between research institutes, universities, and companies, OptiForValue promises a sustainable and resilient future for European forests and their stakeholders.
Forestry is a potential avenue for strengthening European competitiveness, reducing dependence on non-renewable and unsustainable resources, enhancing the circular bioeconomy, and understanding the ecological limits of the bioeconomy. However, European forests and their value chains face several challenges, including growing global demand for wood, biodiversity loss, and increasing biotic and abiotic threats to forest health and economic income caused by climate change.
The ultimate goal of OptiForValues is to foster the transition towards more sustainable and resilient forest-based value chains, through the use of a unique interconnected modeling framework that involves strong participatory engagement and novel scientific approaches, including early warning indicators of biotic and abiotic risks, adaptive forest management strategies, remote sensing and artificial intelligence for agile forest operations, and integrated value chain optimization and life cycle assessments. Expected outcomes include enhanced value addition, competitiveness, sustainability, and resilience of European forest-based value chains, particularly in regions already affected or projected to be affected by climate change in the coming decades.
OptiForValue will accelerate this transition by improving the sustainability, resilience, and profitability of regional value chains in Central Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Boreal region, through case studies in Austria, Spain, Sweden, and Finland. Significant long-term impacts are expected, including a 10% reduction in wood damage, with a subsequent increase in wood harvesting (€240 million annually), a 3% increase in value added thanks to improved quality control (€350 million annually), a 5% increase in the forestry workforce in areas affected by climate change, and a 510% reduction in fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The research institutes, universities, and companies in the consortium are well-equipped to advance the latest advances, validate solutions through case studies, and improve outcomes.
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