Integrated Biodiversity Conservation and Carbon Sequestration in the Changing Environment (IBC-CARBON)

Public description of the goals at the beginning of the project

Successful integration of biodiversity conservation with sustainable forest use under global changes is a major challenge for the Finnish society. Key national policies (e.g. Finnish Energy and Climate Strategy) aim at increasing the use of wood for different products and renewable energy. These aims need to be integrated and balanced with policies for biodiversity conservation. Increased biomass outtake will have far-reaching consequences for biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration, as well as other environmental effects. The project aims at developing (i) integrated models to determine spatially optimized land-use in forest ecosystems, (ii) voluntary monetary compensation mechanisms for forest owners and (iii) informing stakeholders on adaptation options and sustainable policies and their ecological and economic boundary conditions. The project is carried out by a multidisciplinary team from the Finnish Environment Institute, and Universities of Helsinki and Eastern Finland.