European Forest Institute

Comparing the available supply, the societal demand, and the actual use of forest ecosystem services (FES) reveals where societal needs are met, where forests are overexploited to do so, and/or where untapped potential exists. Due to the complexity of this task, many studies focus exclusively on either supply or demand, disregarding their interconnection and limiting the integration of scientific findings into policy and practice. To better understand and address this gap, we aim to identify the main challenges in quantitatively mapping and modelling FES supply-demand mismatches, and to outline practical opportunities for integrating both perspectives. This study presents the synthesis of a systematic literature mapping, where proxy indicators and estimates used to quantify the supply and demand of FES across Europe were collected. We discuss four key challenges, identified from this synthesis, that currently limit the integration of FES supply and demand in practice: (1) inconsistencies in FES quantification methods, (2) limitations of the ecosystem service cascade framework, (3) issues with data availability and reliability, and (4) the interdisciplinary nature of matching supply and demand. Different integration pathways exist, depending on the specific FES and study aim, as a universal integration approach remains unrealistic. Identifying mismatches between the supply and demand of FES remains challenging in practice, especially across large spatial scales. Drawing on an extensive systematic literature mapping exercise, this study uncovers key underlying causes for this research gap and highlights the importance of tailored, FES-specific strategies reconciling ecological and socioeconomic perspectives.

The extension of NASA’s Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) mission beyond the cryosphere to include the study of vegetation and the land surface has significantly advanced global Earth observation. This review synthesizes findings from 293 peer-reviewed articles and provides a comprehensive assessment of the mission’s contributions to terrestrial ecosystem science. We begin by outlining the mission’s objectives, instrumentation, and core data products—particularly ATL03 (geolocated photons) and ATL08 (terrain and canopy heights)—which have supported a wide array of applications in forestry, terrain analysis, and environmental monitoring. Our analysis shows that most studies focus on temperate and tropical broadleaf forests, with a strong emphasis on estimating canopy height, terrain elevation, and forest structure. Terrain metrics derived from ICESat-2 products typically achieve high accuracy, while vegetation variables, such as canopy height, cover, leaf area index (LAI), and aboveground biomass, demonstrate moderate to strong accuracies across biomes. While parametric models remain the most used approach, machine learning methods are expanding, and more than one third of the reviewed literature incorporates synergistic analyses with other satellite missions. Despite its versatility, ICESat-2 remains underutilized in several key domains—including nonforest vegetation, fire ecology, wildlife habitat assessment, urban monitoring, and disturbance detection—mainly due to the scarcity of standardized algorithms and validated reference datasets. However, the growing availability of open source processing tools presents a significant opportunity for expanding the user base and fostering innovation in these emerging areas. Future advancements, such as the forthcoming ATL18 gridded canopy height and terrain products, alongside synergies with missions like the European Space Agency (ESA)’s BIOMASS and the NASA–Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR), promise to enhance multisensor integration and ecosystem monitoring. Overall, ICESat-2 continues to evolve as a powerful resource for characterizing vegetation structure, ecosystem dynamics, and land surface processes on a global scale.

Abstract The successful implementation of climate change (CC) policies and strategies in forestry and related sectors (nature conservation, environment, energy) may be hindered by a lack of appropriate regulatory, economic and informational policy instruments, weak cross-sectoral coordination, and limited stakeholder collaboration during their implementation. This study aims to assess opportunities to improve policy instruments and collaboration for CC governance in the forestry and related sectors in selected forest regions and national parks in Serbia. Data were collected in 2022 through 23 interviews with decision-makers, public and civil sector experts, and representatives of “good practice” examples of stakeholder collaboration in CC. The majority of respondents (87%) support the improvement of regulatory instruments through the development of agreements with local self-governments and different public and civil organizations, and outreach plans in forestry and related sectors. A large number of respondents (70%) advocate for greater variety of economic policy instruments involving local self-government in knowledge sharing programs and creating additional incentives for private forest owners. Informational policy instruments were endorsed by 91% of respondents, who emphasized the importance of local information exchanges, workshops, and forums to enhance community knowledge on CC governance. The majority of public and civil sector representatives (87%) recommend establishing cross-sectoral forums to improve dissemination of information and contacts between stakeholders. All respondents agree with the inclusion of civil sector representatives in the work of emergency management departments. Further research could investigate the feasibility of proposed solutions in the broader Serbian context among a wider group of stakeholders.

Sustainable irrigation in water-limited regions requires timely, field-scale estimates of soil water content (SWC). Yet, field-scale SWC studies leveraging near-daily satellite imagery of regenerative systems—particularly cotton under Mediterranean conditions—are lacking, and explainable integrations of Planet SuperDove with agrometeorological inputs remain underexplored. In this study, we evaluated a machine learning framework that integrates near-daily multispectral features from Planet SuperDove with agrometeorological variables to estimate the daily SWC of regenerative cotton under Mediterranean conditions across two seasons (2023–2024). Six regression models were compared; extreme gradient boosting achieved the highest accuracy (R2 = 0.73 ± 0.08; RMSE = 4.60 mm ± 0.81; nRMSE = 0.035 ± 0.01), with limited bias and stable performance across the years and moisture conditions. The model interpretability via SHAP indicated that agrometeorological drivers contributed over half of the predictive power, while the NDVI and NIR provided the most informative satellite inputs, followed by the NDRE and PSRI. The results show that combining high-frequency satellite data with meteorological inputs can deliver accurate and interpretable SWC estimates at the homogeneous plot level, supporting irrigation optimization of regenerative systems. This approach is practical, transferable, and suited for operational decision-making where frequent, high-resolution observations are available.

Abstract Land use and land cover change (LULCC) can affect the climate system by altering biophysical surface characteristics. At the local scale, climate regulating functions are co-determined by land cover composition and configuration, i.e. the proportions and the spatial arrangement of land cover types. However, research on the relationship between LULCC and climate often focuses individually either on compositional or configurational aspects. As a result, there is a gap in our knowledge about the spatiotemporal distribution of land cover composition and configuration patterns influencing the local climate regulating functions. Here, we used a range of LULCC metrics between 1992 and 2015 and applied Self-Organizing Maps to characterize dominant land cover composition and configuration trajectories in Europe. We then tested the climate relevance of the five most dominant trajectories with a high-resolution regional climate model. Land cover composition and configuration simultaneously changed in more than 20% of the European landmass, with cropland transition to forest patches and bare soil representing the major trajectory. Climate model simulations predict a general increase in the topsoil temperature due to only changes in land cover composition and configuration. All trajectories showed increasing topsoil temperature variability during the crop growing season, with forest transition trajectories showing a greater increase. Our findings demonstrate the relevance of changes in both land cover composition and configuration for the local climate and warrant further empirical and model-based research with an explicit focus on quantifying the effects of simultaneous changes in both these LULCC dimensions.

This study employs Cultural Theory to study perceptions and conflicting worldviews of key actor groups in EU forest policy. Forests are central to different human demands for ecosystem services such as biomass, biodiversity, and climate mitigation. Tradeoffs occur between these ecosystem services, involving the necessity to set priorities. Related to increasing uncertainties inter alia caused by climate change, polarized perspectives prevail in the multi-level EU policy system regarding which evidence, whose attribution, and what optimal governance and management strategies are to be chosen for forests. At the core of these perspectives lie conflicting worldviews related to cultural biases of what is real and right. Through qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with a diverse set of forest policy actors from the EU and member state level, the research delves into their perceptions of EU forest policy, including perceived problems, preferred solutions, and assigned responsibilities, using a Cultural Theory lens. Our analysis distinguishes three groups of actors aligned with distinct elements of Cultural Theory worldviews while acknowledging the nuanced nature of these divisions. Our analysis invites readers to navigate the complexities of EU forest policy, unraveling worldviews and actor perspectives in pursuing informed policy decisions, and may eventually facilitate improved dialogue among actors considering these heterogeneous worldviews.