Several case studies in the SINCERE project are now fully functioning with exciting impacts at local, regional and national scales.
The project’s eleven innovation actions case studies presented progress on their actions to support forests’ provision of benefits to surrounding society at the project’s recent General Assembly which marked the halfway point in this four-year EC-funded project.
Montoya-Zumaeta, J., Rojas, E., & Wunder, S. 2019 PloS one, 14(11) The authors estimated the effects of Peru’s oldest watershed payments for environmental services (PES) initiative in Moyobamba (Andes–Amazon transition zone) and disentangle the complex intervention into its two main forest conservation treatments. First, a state-managed protected area (PA) was established, allowing sustainable use but drastically limiting de facto land use and land rights of households in the upper watershed through command-and-control interventions. Second, a subset of those environmentally regulated households also received incentives: PES-like voluntary contracts with conditional in-kind rewards, combined with access to participation in sustainable income-generating activities [...]
Pan Bern AG Switzerland This innovation action explores how managing forests to be used as spiritual forests and forest kindergartens could benefit both the forest and the forest owner. The core impact of the case study is to raise awareness of the importance of cultural ecosystem services and to motivate forest actors to manage forests appropriately. SINCERE supports this innovation action to demonstrate how new markets for nature-based forest solutions are developed and provides evidence for policy makers to support long-term sustainable management of forests. Ultimately, it aims to increase societal understanding and love of forests. Coordinators [...]
Public Institution Nature Park Medvednica (PINPM) Croatia This Innovation Action will provide a unique and innovative way of evaluating health as a component of forest ecosystem services. The goal is to develop several scenarios for payments of those services, as well as empower future management of the protected area. It may also allow some programmes to be launched in cooperation with health institutions on activities related to human health and rehabilitation. In parallel, the case will raise public awareness about forest ecosystem services in order to increase uptake, and so that all stakeholders and park visitors recognise the benefits of forests [...]
Follow the complete non-wood forest product value chain, from primary production to marketing, in this major publication of the results of the FP7 project, StarTree.
One Earth, a new high-tier, open access, environmental change and sustainability journal from Cell Press (Elsevier), includes a feature on Ecosystem Services in its inaugural edition. Academics from around the world share their views in the article entitled Connecting with Nature, focussing on non-monetary metrics, relational values, reconnecting people to nature, urban nature-based solutions and social values of ecosystems. SINCERE project researcher, Sven Wunder, contributes with reflections on "Mainstreaming Nature? Potentials and Limits". Papers published on One Earth will provide insight into the drivers and scales of environmental change, identify risks and implications for society, and help develop transformative solutions for [...]
Researchers from several scientific disciplines are invited to submit their contribution to this interdisciplinary conference “Governing and managing forests for multiple ecosystem services across the globe” on integrated forest management approaches and ecosystem services.
Pan Bern AG
Andreas Bernasconi reports on the second stakeholder meeting for the Swiss case study which is working to strengthen the connection between people and the forest [...]
Bernasconi, A. 2019. Book of Abstracts of the 21th conference of EFUF, p.54 Spiritual forest spaces have a rising importance in society. One example of this trend is the funeral forest. In Switzerland only 10% of the deceased are still buried in a coffin, it is common to spread or bury the departed’s ashes (Donner 2018). Between 2009 and 2013 in Germany the number of tree burials doubled up to 45’000 per year (Bauer und Schraml 2018). Funeral forests are sacred places, grounded on two Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) of outstanding importance: (a) spiritual and religious meaning and (b) a space of long duration, linking ancestors with [...]
Lundhede, T., Strange, N., Termansen, M., Jacobsen, J.B., Vedel, S.E. and Thorsen, B.J. 2019, IFRO Reports, No. 284 Setting aside forest land is a cost effective way to preserve biodiversity in Danish forests in the long‐run (Højgård et al, 2016). In May 2016 the Danish Government launched a program to set aside forest land for biodiversity protection (Ministry of Environment and Food of Denmark, Naturpakken, 2016). The selected mechanism was to abolish forestry operations on selected state and privately owned land. In 2018 almost 14,000 hectares of state‐owned forest land were selected under this program. The designated areas were identified with [...]
