Spurring INnovations for forest eCosystem sERvices in Europe (SINCERE) is a four-year project funded through the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme. From 2018 to 2022, SINCERE will develop novel policies and new business models by connecting knowledge and expertise from practice, science and policy, across Europe and beyond.
An international Learning Architecture facilitates continuous collaborative learning from the project’s innovation actions, located in nine regions in Europe and two international cases in Peru and Russia. Innovations developed through SINCERE are intentionally varying in nature but, as a whole, aim to explore new means to enhance forest ecosystem services in ways that benefit forest owners as well as serving broad societal needs.
SINCERE’s research also contributes to the development of a coordinated European policy framework to maximise the value to society of forest ecosystem services and their sustainable provision.
SINCERE CHALLENGES
One of the major challenges relating to the management of Europe’s forests is to balance the provision of distinct forest ecosystem services with broad societal demands. If markets and existing governance arrangements fail, forest owners and managers struggle to meet societal needs.
Only some of the services that forests provide are formally part of markets or value chains and some important services have no direct monetary value. Forest ecosystem services need policy and economic incentives to support them, and ways to value services with no direct market value, so that forest managers and owners have additional motives to supply these services.
There is a need to explore new approaches to connect profitable forest management with changing societal demands. Against this background, innovative mechanisms (IM), including novel policies and business models, have the potential to align ecosystem services’ supply and demand.
SINCERE OBJECTIVES
Forests are one of Europe’s main natural resources. They supply Europe’s societies with a set of highly valued ecosystem services and are in return subject to many, varied societal demands. Aligning the provision of forest ecosystem services (FES) with societal demands is the focus of an increasing effort in forest policy and management across Europe, as well as the subject of substantial research efforts.
SINCERE’s main strategic goal is to advance innovative mechanisms (IM), including novel policies and business models, that support the provision of FES across Europe and beyond, and to align them with a coordinated supportive policy framework in view of working towards a Europe-wide incentive system for FES.
The brochure is available (PDF) in the following languages: English, Catalan, Portuguese and Croatian.
SINCERE objectives towards this goal:
Provide an evidence base for innovations for forest ecosystem services through systematic reviews
Build and run a Learning Architecture to facilitate learning between practitioners, policy makers and academia
Develop, implement and analyse innovations for forest ecosystem services
Synthesise knowledge gained across all innovation actions and from all involved disciplines for upscaling
Work towards a coordinated European policy framework to support forest ecosystem services provision
Disseminate knowledge on how to enhance forest ecosystem services