Sustainabilisation of forests and soils and valorization of the achieved ecosystem services in the county of Landsberg (Life Future Forest)

The joint project has produced important handouts for practitioners and decision-makers:

• The future forest - practical guide for sustainable forest conversion
  

This project aims to show that a change from pure coniferous forests to a mixture of coniferous and deciduous wood can already bring a significant increase in ecosystem services during the project period. From a socio-economic perspective, LIFE FutureForest is intended to provide a direct link between the city and district authorities with a cross-sectoral system for valorizing the increase in these ecosystem services. A system for the valorization of CO₂ storage and drinking water supply will be developed as an example and help to avoid environmental problems that arise due to unsustainable forest management and have a long-term impact on soil and water and their ecosystem services.

These environmental problems are in detail:

1. In view of the changing climate conditions, pure coniferous forests are no longer sustainable and will ultimately lead to a loss of the following ecosystem services:
   1a) Due to the decreasing availability of water in the country, but also in similar situations throughout Europe, coniferous forests (mostly spruce) can no longer supply the tree with water due to their shallow roots. Expert predictions regarding the future productivity and health of coniferous forests are alarming.
   1b) Forest degradation leads to a number of serious consequences that have a profound impact on the socio-economic factors of the affected areas:
   - Deterioration of wood quality and susceptibility to the bark beetle. The Landsberg district has already been confronted with falling timber prices and continuous losses in the local forestry and timber industry over the past five years.
   - The soil is not aerated due to the spruce's poorly developed fine root system compared to deciduous forests. This is a poor basis for biodiversity potential, especially for earthworms. The falling groundwater level in the area further exacerbates this problem.
   - Degraded soils also lose relevant water retention and filter functions. In recent years, the town of Landsberg a. Lech has had to buy in drinking water from neighboring municipalities for the first time and has been confronted with the problem of declining drinking water quality.
2. The lack of convincing evidence in the target areas means that the public, relevant stakeholder groups and key decision-makers are not aware of the problem and are therefore unwilling to implement measures.
There is a lack of convincing socio-economic calculation models that capture and value the ecosystem services provided by forests, soil and water.
3. Many authorities do not have sufficient capacity to organize and implement the absolutely necessary cooperation with other sectors
4. There is a lack of an overarching "network of practical advice and insights" that can help decision-makers on the ground to put policy decisions into practice
   

The overall aim of the project is to contribute to the EU-wide acceptance, anchoring and implementation of more sustainable management approaches for forests and soil through this local example at district level. This also includes linking ecological upgrading in the forestry and timber sector and its valorization by other sectors and the establishment of a sustainable economic cycle at local level.

LIFE FutureForest is embedded in a broader initiative, the Alpine Soils Partnership. This is part of the European and Global Soil Partnership, which was founded as part of the Interreg B project "Links4Soils" and is specifically based on concrete and practical policy support at local level. LIFE FutureForest aims to expand pilot experiments in this area towards a functioning, sustainable and thus climate-resilient socio-economic cycle, taking advantage of the multiple benefits of associated ecosystem services.

The project aims to contribute to the following, more specific objectives:

1. Contribute to an EU-wide ecological restructuring of forests through adapted local actions focusing on different stages of the process (stand establishment, maintenance, harvests)
2. Contribute to the measurement and valorization of the following ecosystem services:
   - Increasing timber quantity and quality for the market through sustainable forest and soil development
   - Increasing soil quality through better aerated soil
   - Increasing biodiversity by favoring earthworms and the totality of other organisms that help, create and maintain rich soils and preserve the associated ecosystem services in the long term
   - Increase the water retention capacity of the forest by introducing suitable hardwood
   - Increase the CO₂ storage capacity of the forest with the measurable increase in the development of the soil with fine roots
   - Increase the availability and quality of drinking water for the region
3. Capturing the diverse socio-economic benefits through cross-sectoral valorization of ecosystem services
4. Anchoring these established sustainable socio-economic cycles in a larger network for further dissemination and replication