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Remote sensing and machine learning-based approaches to detect, predict and analyse changes in forests under climate change. The training will include theory lectures, on climate resilience and remote sensing, practical exercises and a field trip to disturbed areas. Other subject studies are dynamics of boreal forests and forestry in the boreal region.

Participants will have the opportunity to work in groups, learning how to retrieve remote sensing data, detect and analyse forest change, classify data, as well as making predictions of forest damage (i.e. disturbances).

The summer school will be organised at the University of Eastern Finland in Joensuu Finland, in collaboration with INRAe and the Horizon Europe Eco2adapt project and the support from IUFRO Division 8 on Forest Environment.

Dates: The Summer School will take place from 7 to 18 August 2023.

Topical contents

• Forestry in boreal forests, Finland
• Which forests are prone to disturbances in boreal areas?
• Planetary Computer and remote sensing data
• Monitoring disturbances and their management (i.e. mitigation measures)
• Machine learning theory
• Change detection analyses

Check the participation fee and how to apply here.

EFI’s Director Marc Palahí spoke about Developing a sustainable forest bioeconomy that works for forests and people to an audience of Heads of State and Ministers at the One Forest Summit, which took place in Gabon on March 2.

The European Commission adopted a proposal for a first EU-wide voluntary framework to reliably certify high-quality carbon removals. The proposal will boost innovative carbon removal technologies and sustainable carbon farming solutions, and contribute to the EU’s climate, environmental and zero-pollution goals. The proposed regulation will significantly improve the EU’s capacity to quantify, monitor and verify carbon removals. Higher transparency will ensure trust from stakeholders and industry, and prevent greenwashing. Carbon removals can and must bring clear benefits for the climate, and the Commission will prioritise those carbon removal activities which will provide significant benefits for biodiversity. Moving forward, the Commission, supported by experts, will develop tailored certification methods for carbon removal activities delivering on climate and other environmental objectives.

To ensure the transparency and credibility of the certification process, the proposal sets out rules for the independent verification of carbon removals, as well as rules to recognise certification schemes that can be used to demonstrate compliance with the EU framework. To ensure the quality and comparability of carbon removals, the proposed regulation establishes four QU.A.L.ITY criteria:

1. Quantification: Carbon removal activities need to be measured accurately and deliver unambiguous benefits for the climate;
2. Additionality: Carbon removal activities need to go beyond existing practices and what is required by law;
3. Long-term storage: Certificates are linked to the duration of carbon storage so as to ensure permanent storage;
4. Sustainability: Carbon removal activities must preserve or contribute to sustainability objectives such as climate change adaptation, circular economy, water and marine resources, and biodiversity.

This proposal is essential to the EU’s goal of becoming the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050. To achieve this goal, the EU needs to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to a minimum. At the same time, the EU will have to scale up the removal of carbon from the atmosphere to balance out emissions which cannot be eliminated.

Industrial technologies, such as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) or direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS), can capture carbon and store it permanently. In agriculture and forestry, carbon farming practices can sustainably enhance the storage of carbon in soils and forests or reduce the release of carbon from soils, and create a new business model for farmers and foresters. Long-lasting products and materials, such as wood-based construction products, can also keep carbon bound over several decades or longer.

Today’s proposal will promote cutting-edge clean technologies and support the New European Bauhaus by recognising the carbon storage capacity of wood-based and energy-efficient building materials. The proposal will enable innovative forms of private and public financing, including impact finance or result-based public support under State aid or the Common Agricultural Policy. The Commission will continue funding carbon removal action on the ground through the Innovation Fund (which can finance BECCS and DACCS projects, among others), the Common Agricultural Policy, the Regional Development Fund, the LIFE programme and the Horizon Europe programme (including the Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’).

Source: European Commission

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