Research and innovations for the services that forests provide to society are the focus of a new European project funded under Horizon 2020.

Responding to society’s demands for services such as recreation, biodiversity provision and carbon storage, the project will look at innovative ways to value and implement such “forest ecosystem services” in Europe and beyond.

Spurring INnovations for forest eCosystem SERvices in Europe (SINCERE) is a four-year project funded through the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme. 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 will facilitate 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 will be intentionally varying in nature but will, 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 will also contribute to the development of a coordinated European policy framework to maximise the value to society of forest ecosystem services and their sustainable provision.

The European Forest Institute coordinates the project of 21 partners from 11 countries.

SINCERE receives ca. 4 Mio Euro in funding from the European Commission’s H2020 programme through the RUR-05-2017 call,  Novel public policies, business models and mechanisms for the sustainable supply of and payment for forest ecosystem services.