The latest report from the OptFor-EU project highlights advancements in forest management practices within its Case Study Areas (Austria, Romania, and Italy) and explores their implications under varying climate scenarios. The report provides key insights on the integration of these practices into climate models, highlighting the importance of forest management in mitigating climate change impacts and reinforcing the role of adaptive strategies in forest conservation.
The study utilised advanced forest modeling tools, including PICUS and 3D-CMCC-FEM, to simulate different forest management practices at the stand and regional levels, accounting for age classes and climate change effects. Preliminary results emphasise the impact of tailored management strategies on forest sustainability and resilience, and suggest various forest management options at the regional level.
Additionally, the report outlines the integration of land cover parameterization and management practices into climate models, such as REMO-iMOVE and RegCM, introducing new plant functional types to improve accuracy.
The report concludes with a synthesis of findings and the next steps for advancing forest-climate modeling efforts, stressing the necessity to include FMP in climate models to enhance the accuracy of future climate predictions by capturing the mutual relationship between forest dynamics and climate under varying management practices.
