Forest ecosystems face unprecedented pressure, with about one hectare of tropical forest lost or degraded every second, and over half destroyed since the 1960s (IUCN, 2021). While deforestation is easier to detect, forest degradation is harder to monitor but often causes greater losses of key ecosystem services (Qin et al., 2021). Climate change further intensifies degradation drivers, shifting forests from carbon sinks to carbon sources; in Europe alone, 168 million tons of CO₂-equivalent are lost annually due to climate-induced disturbances (Seidl et al., 2014).
Nature-based solutions (NBS), such as forest landscape restoration (FLR), provide vital opportunities to reverse these trends and restore ecological, social, climatic, and economic benefits. Major international commitments, including the Bonn Challenge and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, underscore the urgency of scaling restoration. At the regional level, the EU has launched research and innovation programs, such as Interreg CE-RENFORCE and H2020-SUPERB, to address the societal, economic, and policy dimensions of forest degradation and restoration.
Despite such efforts, forest degradation remains insufficiently understood due to inconsistent definitions, transboundary impacts, and limited monitoring tools. This session aims to advance knowledge by gathering insights into monitoring approaches, stakeholder perspectives, and policy dimensions of NBS and FLR under climate change. We welcome contributions on:
Modelling and predicting forest degradation drivers.
Impacts of degradation on ecosystem services.
Stakeholder perspectives and policy initiatives for NBS in FLR.
Innovative, cross-scale restoration strategies, including co-benefits and resilience under climate change.
IUCN (2021) Deforestation And Forest Degradation. IUCN Issues Brief. February 2021. Available at: https://iucn.org/sites/default/files/2022-04/deforestation-forest_degradation_issues_brief_2021.pdf
Qin Y, Xiao X, Wigneron JP, et al (2021) Carbon loss from forest degradation exceeds that from deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Nature Climate Change 2021 11:5 11:442–448.
Seidl R, Schelhaas MJ, Rammer W, Verkerk PJ (2014) Increasing forest disturbances in Europe and their impact on carbon storage. Nat Clim Chang 4:806–810.