Forest restoration in practice – lessons learned from 12 demo sites

Gesche Schifferdecker on January 23, 2026

SUBERB demo sites

Restoring forests is as much a social, institutional, and economic endeavor as it is an ecological one. Across regions, landscapes, and governance contexts, restoration initiatives have generated a wealth of experience – what worked, what didn’t, and what must change to achieve lasting impact. This Lessons Learned booklet brings together insights from our 12 large-scale restoration sites, grounded in real-world practice rather than theory alone.

The lessons presented here are not prescriptive recipes. Instead, they highlight recurring patterns, critical success factors, and persistent bottlenecks encountered in forest restoration efforts. Together, they underline a central truth: successful restoration is a long-term process that depends on people, policies, and institutions working in concert with ecological systems.

By distilling these lessons, the booklet aims to support practitioners, decision-makers, and funders in designing restoration efforts that are durable, scalable, and context-sensitive – moving from isolated projects toward sustained landscape transformation.

Key Messages

  1. Forest restoration is a long-term commitment.
    Restoration cannot be achieved through one-off interventions; it requires sustained engagement, adaptive management, and long-term vision.
  2. Disturbance can be a catalyst for change.
    Catastrophic natural events – particularly in single-species monocultures – often expose structural vulnerabilities and can trigger more ambitious and transformative restoration efforts.
  3. Local communities are central to success.
    Communities are not only beneficiaries but essential partners in restoration. Meaningful involvement must begin early and be supported through continuous, trust-building processes.
  4. Finance and institutions matter – but gaps remain.
    Stable public funding and institutional support are fundamental. At present, voluntary private finance mechanisms fall short of delivering the scale and reliability needed for restoration.
  5. Demonstration sites accelerate learning.
    Practical demonstrations provide tested and transferable models, showing how restoration can work across diverse ecological and socio-economic contexts.
  6. Restoration costs are highly variable.
    Costs depend on landscape conditions, the intensity and complexity of measures, spatial fragmentation, and opportunity costs for land users.
  7. Scaling up requires policy alignment.
    Successful upscaling depends on aligning local practices and needs with broader policy frameworks and regulatory environments.
  8. Knowledge infrastructures ensure lasting impact.
    Systems for consolidating and sharing knowledge are essential to move beyond individual projects and to support institutions responsible for national restoration planning.

New SUPERB policy brief: forest restoration as a pillar of Europe’s climate and biodiversity action

Gesche Schifferdecker on December 17, 2025

SUBERB demo areas

Our newly released policy brief brings together scientific knowledge and hands-on experience from our 12 large-scale forest restoration initiatives across Europe, offering timely and practical guidance for policymakers, forest managers, and other key stakeholders.

The brief underlines that restoring forests is not a single action, but a long-term, multi-phase process. Effective restoration typically moves from assessing initial conditions and drivers of degradation, through planning and implementation, to long-term maintenance, monitoring, and evaluation. Success depends on flexibility, adaptive management, and strong engagement with multiple stakeholders, including forest owners, local communities, policymakers, and practitioners.

In the face of climate change, increasing disturbances, and shifting socio-economic demands, our policy brief stresses the need for future-oriented restoration targets. These should focus not only on biodiversity, but also on the ecosystem services forests provide – such as carbon storage, water regulation, and recreation – and the ecological processes that sustain them. Because the benefits of restoration often become visible only after decades, our brief highlights the critical importance of sustained funding for monitoring and adaptive management.

Drawing on insights from our 12 large-scale forest restoration demonstration areas across Europe, our experts identified shared challenges despite the diversity of forest types, ownership structures, and management traditions. Key issues include high ungulate browsing pressure that damages young trees and increases restoration costs, difficulties in engaging private forest owners – who manage around 60% of Europe’s forests – and constraints related to forest reproductive materials, such as shortages of climate-adapted seeds and seedlings.

To address these challenges, the brief puts forward clear and actionable recommendations. These include increasing flexibility in restoration objectives and timelines, adapting hunting and forest reproductive materials legislation, and strengthening monitoring of browsing impacts. Further recommendations suggest improving dialogue among forest managers, hunters, and communities, and supporting nurseries through long-term planning and investment. Our experts also call for contingency planning to cope with natural disturbances and for the strategic use of pioneer and climate-adapted species to build resilient mixed forests.

By translating lessons learned from real-world restoration efforts into policy-relevant recommendations, this policy brief provides a valuable roadmap for scaling up forest restoration across Europe. At a time when resilient forests are more important than ever, it offers concrete guidance to help turn ambitious restoration commitments into lasting outcomes.

Reference: Filipek, S., Jacobs, S., Nabuurs, GJ., Barnkob Lehrmann, M., Bílek, L., Campana, F., Cotten, L., de Dios, J., de Graaf, M., de Guerry, B., Đodan, M., Galić, Z., Gallego, R., García, R., Gómez Fernández, M., Granberg, Å., Hoch, T., Jactel, H., Janzen, L., Lastra González, D., Lindner, M., Locatelli, T., Marušák, R., Mijatović, L., Nicoll, B., Oleagordia, Í., Olsen, H., Orazio, C., Olrik, D. C., Raats, L., Saini, M., Schmidt, C., Svoboda, M., Svensson, J., Tognetti, R., Vacchiano, G., Zorić, M., Zotta, M., Schatzdorfer, E. (2025): Common challenges in implementing forest restoration: Experiences from 12 large-scale demonstration areas across Europe. Policy brief. https://doi.org/10.36333/rs15

Stakeholders inspire forest restoration progress in Vysočina region

superbadmin on October 29, 2025

Stakeholder Engagement: excursion

On 3 June 2025, the third SUPERB stakeholder workshop took place in Žďár nad Sázavou in Czech Republic, bringing together forestry experts, local landowners, researchers, and members of the public to discuss forest restoration challenges and opportunities in the Vysočina region. The event provided valuable insights into how restoration practices can balance ecological resilience with economic and social needs.

Discussions focused on forest regeneration, water retention, and the creation of healthy, diverse, and resilient forests that serve both production and non-production functions. Participants emphasized the importance of involving a wider range of community members and ensuring transparent communication about restoration goals.

The workshop’s evaluation confirmed a positive and constructive atmosphere, with participants praising the opportunity to exchange views and learn from local forestry examples. Those new to the project gradually developed a deeper understanding of the region’s forest management practices and expressed appreciation for the project’s transparent and inclusive approach. Many participants noted that the showcased restoration activities could serve as inspiration for their own forest management efforts.

The workshop also revealed new opportunities for broader stakeholder engagement, such as visiting restoration sites beyond the project area to compare experiences and results. Ensuring public participation and maintaining open dialogue were identified as key success factors for future activities.

The event built on previous outreach efforts, including presentations at forestry seminars and professional lectures organized by Czech University of Life Sciences (CZU) and regional partners. These activities continue to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange among researchers, foresters, and local communities.

In conclusion, the workshop reinforced a shared vision: restoring resilient, biodiverse forests in the wake of bark beetle damage – a mission that, as participants agreed, is already showing promising results across the Vysočina region.

Biodiversity Blending at Bangor

Shan Gao on May 22, 2025

Restoration Story by Anna Wood and Simon Creer

Identifying which insects live where in forests can help us study how biodiversity in forests changes. This is what our SUPERB team at Bangor University is working on.  Our partners from the SUPERB demo sites in Spain, France, Sweden, Czech Republic, Romania and Serbia collected over 1,600 arthropod samples over the last three spring/summer seasons and sent them to the Molecular Ecology and Evolution group at Bangor University in the UK. 

To find out which insects live in our demo sites, we need to capture and identify a representation of the insect community that live in an area of a forest. One method of doing this is using a Malaise trap (see picture above). It looks like a tent, and its function is to trap flying insects and direct them into a bottle of ethanol that preserves them. It is possible to identify some of the insects from their physical appearance, but many insects are difficult to identify just by looking at them, but they can be identified from the DNA present in their bodies. 

DNA Barcoding and Metabarcoding of “Insect Soup”

DNA barcoding takes advantage of the fact that many species have genes that are more similar within a species than between species. These variable regions, or ‘DNA barcode’ regions, are often sandwiched in between more conserved regions of the genome. Using molecular biology, we can use the conserved regions and amplify the barcode region using a technique called PCR (the polymerase chain reaction), from which we can generate a DNA sequence. This sequence can become a DNA barcode for each species, forming a global reference library of barcodes that can be used for species identification. DNA metabarcoding follows the same theory, but instead of using DNA from one individual or one sequence, it uses DNA from the whole communities of different species to generate millions of sequences.

The first step is to homogenise or blend the entire mixed insect sample into an “insect smoothie.” From this, it’s possible to extract DNA from all the different insects, which can be PCR’ed sample by sample and sequenced all together using high-throughput sequencing. When the sequences are compared to the DNA barcoding reference library, we can identify which insect species are found in our forests. Metabarcoding can be used for many different sample types, and in SUPERB, we are also using it to identify fungi, plants and microscopic animals’ species from soil samples collected in the same forests. 

Over the last 3 years we have blended over 1600 malaise insect samples, which involved washing over 3200 blender cups. The metabarcoding laboratory work for all the SUPERB project samples is now complete and currently being sequenced.

We will be analysing the insect metabarcoding data, along with soil metabarcoding and other datasets collected at the same forest sites, to explore the above and below ground biodiversity in Europe’s forests. We hope to have exciting data to share soon, and we’ll be take a well-earned break from making insect smoothies until next time!

How Europe’s restoration projects are shaping national plans

Daria Kononenko on May 8, 2025

Across Europe, there are 71 restoration sites — from Ireland’s peatlands to Romania’s forests. Since 2021, SUPERB and its sister projects MERLIN, REST-COAST and WaterLANDS have been working on the ground to restore forests, wetlands, rivers, and coasts, all funded under the Green Deal. 

Now the projects’ findings are helping countries draft National Restoration Plans (NRPs) — a key requirement under the EU’s new Nature Restoration Regulation. 

To support this process, over 100 experts — scientists, policymakers, and local stakeholders — met at the European Commission on 10 March 2025. The meeting focused on what has worked in practice, where challenges remain, and how field-based experience can help Member States design effective NRPs. 

The report Supporting the Development of National Restoration Plans brings together what’s been learned so far — practical tools, examples, and ideas that can help shape national restoration plans, including from SUPERB’s side: 

  • A soon-to-launch Forest Knowledge Gateway with guides on tree selection, funding, and more. 
  • Case studies from SUPERB’s 12 demonstration sites. 
  • Policy maps showing where national laws align or clash with restoration goals. 

With draft NRPs due by September 2026, SUPERB’s work aims at helping national partners to implement these tools — from policy alignment frameworks to site-specific restoration strategies tested across its demonstration area network. 

Read on the full report here

Photo: Anat art / Adobe Stock

10 Things We Can All Learn from the Evolution of Forest Restoration Initiatives in Europe 

Shan Gao on December 19, 2024

By Maitane Erdozain Ibarra, CTFC & Rina Tsubaki, EFI.

Forest restoration is far more than a modern buzzword—its history runs deeper than most realize. Yet, despite decades of effort, the lack of proper documentation of successes and failures has prevented us from truly learning from the past.  

Today, the global push for forest restoration is stronger than at any point in history. Initiatives like the European Nature Restoration Law are sparking hope and action. Now, more than ever, we need to look back and reflect on how forest restoration efforts have evolved, what sparked change, and what lessons past and present initiatives can offer. That will empower us to make forest restoration efforts more effective, impactful, and grounded — both now and in the future. 

A Europe-wide Study to Explore Trends, Patterns and Drivers of Forest Restoration 

Led by Maitane Erdozain and Sergio de Miguel from the Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia (CTFC) and the University of Lleida (UDL), we published a study that examined narratives from 32 forest restoration experts in 18 European countries to uncover the history of forest restoration in Europe. The study asked experts to delve into six key areas—social, economic, political, technical, environmental and legal— to understand different drivers that shaped forest restoration across Europe. 

The analysis revealed fascinating trends and patterns. Early restoration efforts in central and southern Europe often arose in response to crises like natural disasters and timber shortages. While these initiatives were effective for erosion control and timber production, they often relied on monocultures and short rotations, limiting ecological benefits. The geopolitical upheavals of the 20th century pushed timber production to the forefront, with centralized management that usually favored productivity over biodiversity. Since the 1990s, however, we have started to see a shift: restoration now strives to balance environmental, social, and economic goals, driven by a growing appreciation for the multifunctionality of forests. 

Lessons from Successes and Failures in the Past and Present 

So, what are the drivers that shaped the development of forest restoration in Europe that we can learn from both the past and present?  

Here are 10 lessons we learned: 

  1. Natural disasters as catalysts: Major natural disturbances (floods, shifting sands etc.) triggered early restoration efforts in many countries. Over the past decades, environmental crises (climatic, biodiversity, water etc.) have also influenced the type of restoration that is conducted. 
  1. Geopolitical turmoil forces change: Wars greatly contributed to forest degradation through direct destruction and overexploitation, but they also prompted large-scale afforestation campaigns to address timber shortages. These initiatives shaped today’s forests, showing how crises can simultaneously hinder and drive restoration progress. 
  1. Forest ownership and governance: Centralized forest governance often enabled large-scale restoration success, while fragmented ownership often slowed down restoration progress. Innovative governance mechanisms are needed to address the issue of fragmentation, where many small landowners hold land rights.
  1. Funding mechanisms: Lack of funding has been a longstanding obstacle, but there are examples of strong and stable funding mechanisms throughout history.  Although EU funding has been instrumental in shifting the types of restoration implemented, there is an urgent need for innovative funding sources (e.g., private) and mechanisms that are long-term and resilient to political and market fluctuations. 
  1. Market fluctuations: Shifts in demand for products like timber and fuelwood significantly shaped restoration strategies. Future efforts should integrate marketable benefits from different ecosystem services to sustain landowner engagement and secure lasting outcomes. 
  1. The role of sociodemographics and social values: Rural abandonment tends to reduce land-use conflicts but can lead to new challenges like unmanaged forests. Increasing environmental awareness and recreational demands from society have diversified restoration objectives. These findings underscore the need for active rural engagement and public education to balance priorities. 
  1. Policies as guiding forces: Strict yet balanced national policies that integrate ecological protection with socioeconomic benefits, alongside ambitious international policies and the creation of institutions specialized in restoration, have been pivotal in driving progress and inspiring coordinated restoration strategies. 
  1. Converging drivers accelerate change: Restoration succeeds when environmental, social, economic and political factors align. Historical examples show that isolated drivers rarely catalyze change; a multidimensional approach is essential to create transformative impacts. 
  1. Conflicts hinder progress: Competing objectives, such as agriculture versus forest land uses, or timber production versus conservation, remain major obstacles. Addressing conflicts—both among stakeholders and policies—requires a holistic landscape approach that simultaneously addresses many challenges that society faces. 
  1. Short-term fixes, long-term risks: Lastly, the historical accounts demonstrate that restoration efforts with a short-term vision often create future vulnerabilities. Long-term thinking that acknowledges the interconnectedness of our systems is crucial for successful forest restoration that benefits ecosystems and communities.  
Infographic by Shanqing Gao, EFI

Embracing the Past and Building a Better Future

From this study, we learned the importance of blending historical insights with contemporary strategies to guide more sustainable and impactful forest restoration. By learning from past successes and failures, policymakers and practitioners can avoid repeating mistakes and leverage effective solutions. We hope the lessons uncovered in this research will be crucial for implementing the new Nature Restoration Law to ensure its ambitions are translated into large-scale, real-world impact across Europe. 

Reference: Erdozain, M., Alberdi, I., Aszalos, R. et al. The Evolution of Forest Restoration in Europe: A Synthesis for a Step Forward Based on National Expert Knowledge. Curr. For. Rep. 11, 4 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/40725-024-00235-3

Read the full study here.

Reforestation in our demo area in Vysocina region

superbadmin on January 9, 2023

In the Vysocina region, mature Norway spruce stands were heavily infested by bark beetles. It resulted in massive salvage logging and an abrupt decrease of the area of older coniferous stands by 20%. In one of the most affected forest districts, Ledeč nad Sázavou (Forest of the Czech Republic; Lesy České republiky s.p.), salvage felling in the period 2018–2022 amounted to 2 219 333 m3. Affected trees were continuously removed, and sites were prepared for restoration. The main restoration measures are natural and artificial regeneration (planting and seeding) of site-specific tree species of local provenances (following national legislation – decree 456/2021) and subsequent weed control. In the Czech demo areas, planting took place in the spring and autumn of 2022. Protection through the fencing of broadleaved and Abies alba was necessary to prevent game browsing. The main tree species used for reforestation are Quercus petraea, Fagus sylvatica, Acer pseudoplatanus, Picea abies, Alnus glutinosa, Pinus sylvestris and Prunus avium. The design of reforestation is based on site-specific conditions, the mosaic of site types and targeted tree species composition. In the coming years, we plan on improvement of afforestation in case of failures, mechanical weed control, and consequent use of repellents outside the fenced areas. 

“Forest restoration needs to look ahead, not backwards, in face of climate change”: An interview with SUPERB coordinator Elisabeth Pötzelsberger on World Habitat Day

superbadmin on October 3, 2022

This 3rd of October is World Habitat Day! To celebrate the occasion, SUPERB coordinator Elisabeth Pötzelsberger, Head of Resilience Programme at the European Forest Institute (EFI), explained the importance of “prestoration” – the combination of restoration and climate adaptation – for resilient and functional forest habitats. She discussed how it differs from classical restoration approaches, highlighted its relevance to the new EU Nature Restoration Law and listed concrete examples of how prestoration is being applied within the SUPERB demonstration areas in Germany and in the Czech Republic.

Watch the video interview on YouTube or read it below!

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What is prestoration? How does it differ from more classical approaches to forest restoration?

Why do we actually restore restore forests? There are large restoration needs, for example, when forests are impacted by hot temperatures, forest fires, and also by prolonged droughts that will also cause outbreaks of pests and pathogens, which can kill forests on large landscape levels. But also to make our forests more diverse again in Europe and to bring back important habitats that, for example, are associated with deadwood and old-growth elements, which have become rare across Europe.

When people talk about restoration, they might think of different objectives that may be located along the so-called restoration continuum. The classical restoration continuum ranges from fighting the drivers of degradation over remediation of ecosystem functions up to full ecological restoration, where species diversity, ecosystem structure and function are restored. However, climate change adds a new dimension to this restoration continuum. Therefore, the consideration of adaptation in restoration, what we can call prestoration, is becoming so important.

Forest researchers and practitioners are therefore supporting this concept, which means the combination of restoration ambitions with the need for adaptation. Adaptation of tree species composition and forest structure in order to increase the resilience of forests under climate change and also ensure forest functioning in the future.

Can you give a few examples that illustrate how prestoration works?

There are already good examples where we are practising prestoration, like in our two SUPERB demonstration areas in central Europe – in Germany (North Rhine-Westfalia) and in the Czech Republic. These regions are naturally dominated by beech forests but some decades or centuries ago have been converted into Norway Spruce plantations.

Now with prolonged droughts, these Norway Spruce forests have been severely damaged by subsequent bark beetle infestations. In SUPERB, we are not only restoring them back into native beech forest ecosystems but already looking into more drought-tolerant habitat types like oak/hornbeam forests and mixing them with even more broadleaved tree species to increase forest resilience and functionality also for future climate conditions.

What challenges does prestoration entail?

Prestoration is neither simple nor straightforward. With climate change, we are really entering uncharted territory. We will be and already are experiencing conditions that we have never experienced before. Also our native forest species are not adjusted to these new conditions. Looking for more adapted species in the Mediterranean may be an option. However, there is also large uncertainty associated with it because we don’t know, for example, whether these species will be truly suited to the climatic conditions that will occur in 100 years’ time, because there is still a broad range of possible climate change scenarios.

And then there is another challenge: forests do not consist only of trees. There are many other plant and animal species that live in these forests and are also dependent on these tree species. So, will they be fit to survive in these climatic conditions and will they be happy to thrive in these forests which may consist of different tree species than today?

What are the prerequisites for successful prestoration?

Due to this large uncertainty, in SUPERB we are convinced that we need flexible approaches and to revisit decisions as we go along. And of course, with SUPERB we are also providing continuous scientific support which will allow us to find out which are the right species compositions and how we can assist the migration of other plant and animal species across the landscape so they can find in the future forest habitats and climate conditions that they are adjusted to.

How is prestoration relevant to the new EU Restoration Law?

So this prestoration concept, this idea of integrating adaptation into restoration, will be of crucial importance if we want to achieve the overall goal of the new EU’s Biodiversity Strategy and the EU’s Forest Strategy, which is to restore European biodiversity and continuous provision of ecosystem services in the future.

These Biodiversity and Forest Strategies of the EU now will be supported by the Nature Restoration legislation which is currently being debated at the EU level. It remains to be seen how much space will be given actually to adaptation in this new restoration proposal.

But already experiencing this high-speed climate change, I think it is pretty clear: we have to look ahead and not backwards if we want to be prepared for what is coming.

Visions for forest restoration in the Bohemian forest

superbadmin on September 7, 2022

Stakeholder Engagement Workshop in SUPERB’s Czech demo

Since 2018, massive bark beetle attacks caused widespread damage to the Norway spruce forests in SUPERB’s Czech demo, leading to heavily degraded areas and clearings. The infestations also had devastating social impacts as they negatively affected the forestry sector and deprived local communities of important spaces for recreation. To gather broad support for the forest regeneration efforts in the area, our Czech partners brought together a diverse group of stakeholders from forest enterprises, value chain, policy, NGOs, environmentalists, forest owners, hunters, and the public in a 1-day workshop. Aim of the workshop was to discuss different restoration approaches and how to tailor them to public and private interests. Another important topic was the need to increase the resilience of the future forest to pest outbreaks with the objective to enhance ecosystem services, such as wood production, carbon storage, biodiversity conservation, soil protection, recreation, water provision, and educational activities. A crucial part of the workshop was an excursion to the demo area which allowed for mutual learning and deepening the discourse.