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

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.

Breaking out of business as usual in Serbian forestry

superbadmin on February 21, 2024

Oak seedlings ready for planting in the demo site Vujan

On 23 November 2023, the second stakeholder workshop focusing on the SUPERB demo Coppice Forests in Serbia took place at the Monastery Vujan, in Prislonica. Engaging conversations around the ongoing restoration activities in the demo area were held with five participants, mostly coming from private forestry companies. This was also an excellent opportunity for the demo team to collect in-depth feedback from the participants.

The workshop started with a presentation on the work that has been done since the beginning of the project, followed by an overview of the ongoing and planned restoration activities. Particularly, all participants were very pleased to see the number of different noble tree species’ seedlings that were used in the restoration activities, such as Prunus avium L., Pyrus pyraster L., Acer platanoides L., Acer pseudoplatanus L., Corylus colurna L. They emphasised that SUPERB’s approach greatly differs from business-as-usual in Serbian forestry and appreciated how biodiversity preservation is well considered in the restoration activities.

Noble tree species’ seedlings

After a short coffee break, the demo team opened the next session by presenting activities conducted in the past two years and upcoming plans. Two highlights of these past activities are the restoration of an area of 50ha and the planting of 16.920 seedlings during 2022-23! As for this year, the plan is to start the restoration on an area of 80ha using seedlings and natural regeneration where possible. While this session was mainly prepared for forest landowners and managers, participants expressed their interest in how the SUPERB project’s practical approach is backed by science. One of the participants was very interested in the remote sensing activities such as the use of LiDAR remote sensing (implemented by SUPERB colleagues from Bangor University and Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) and was curious about who would come to perform this work and when. The session ended with playing the acoustic recording of the Žiča site, through which participants were able to enjoy different birds’ chirping.

Birds’ chirping recording of the Žiča site

After a wrap up session, the demo team led the participants through a walk in the forest. They visited areas where restoration had already taken place and saw first-hand what had been presented to them during the workshop. Some of the participants had already attended the first stakeholder workshop (also organised by the demo team) and were impressed to see how many of the previously planned activities are now taking shape!

Photos taken during the walk

Next steps: bringing more people on board!

Even though the participants expressed their full support to the restoration plans for the demo, there were no private and institutional landowners joining the workshop, and it is very important to have them onboard. Additionally, for the stakeholder engagement strategy, the demo team plans to actively participate in discussions about forest restoration, and to establish links with local communities, including primary schools and recreational forest users. It is of crucial importance to acknowledge the necessity of starting an extended dialogue with a wide range of local stakeholders to increase awareness about the importance of forest restoration and by this, secure their participation and support in the activities of the SUPERB project.

Restoring the “European Amazon”: a journey through Serbia’s riparian forests

superbadmin on October 5, 2023

#Restoration Story by Ajdin Starcevic, Wageningen University and Research

If I had to encapsulate my recent journey to the Serbian forest in just two words, they would undoubtedly be “pleasantly surprised”.

Our arrival in Belgrade took place on a hot late September day, amidst the warmth that characterizes the Balkans’ phenomenon known as “Miholjsko ljeto”. A period of unseasonably warm, dry weather that sometimes occurs in autumn.  It’s rather amusing, in retrospect, how serendipitous it felt as we embarked on our journey to the final destination, Novi Sad—the hometown of a renowned singer-songwriter who has a tune coincidentally named ”Miholjsko leto 95’”, which I would listen to during my teens. But let’s momentarily set aside my high school nostalgia and return to the narrative.

Our expedition to Serbia served a dual purpose, each with its distinct goal. The initial part of our journey was dedicated to the EFI Annual Conference, a commemoration of the European Forest Institute’s three-decade-long journey. En route to Serbia, we pored over the pages of “An Idea Becomes a Reality”, a book that had been published on EFI’s 10th anniversary. Our supervisor Gert-Jan Nabuurs, professor of European forest resources at Wageningen University and Research, amused us with the intricate tale of how it all commenced and evolved. By the time we touched down, my colleague Bas Lerink and I had a profound respect and a sense of honour for being able to be a part of the beautiful EFI family.

The two days of the conference flew by, filled with engaging conversations with both familiar and new faces. Each of us from the Wageningen team played a role in it; Bas participated as a panelist in one of the discussions, Gert-Jan took on the role of a managing senior, exploring new opportunities for us to make a positive impact on the European environmental scene, and I had the privilege of being a presenter in the Young Scientist Session.

The team alongside the beautiful oak trees in the first chronosequence site (Photo: Martina Zoric)

The second part of our journey offered a stark contrast to the formalities of the EFI Annual Conference – no more suits, fancy city halls, or gala dinners. Instead, we swapped that for boots and forest green pants as we met our hosts, Zoran, Martina, and Velisav from the Institute of Lowland Forestry and Environment, on an early Friday morning, with the sun rising over the Petrovaradin fortress in Novi Sad. Accompanied by Magda Bou Dagher-Kharrat, the SUPERB project coordinator, and Bart Muys, professor of forest ecology and forest management at KU Leuven, we set off to explore the local SUPERB demo site.

After a scenic hour-and-a-half drive northwest of Novi Sad, passing through the vast golden- coloured cornfields of the Vojvodina region, we finally reached the local office of the Special Nature Reserve “Gornje Podunavlje”. Here, we were warmly welcomed by the dedicated team implementing the SUPERB project on the ground in Serbia: Slađana, Radmila, Andrea, Peđa, Ognjen and Srđan. From there, we ventured into an enchanting oak forest that seemed taken right out of a fairy tale to visit the first chronosequence site. It teemed with biodiversity, evidenced by the wild game tracks in the mud and different types of oak galls, some of which were new to all of us. Our hosts explained that this is the legacy they aim to leave behind; the work they are doing today will ultimately result in forests like this thriving a century from now.

Adjacent to this forest, we encountered a vast clearing of approximately 30 hectares, which was once a poplar plantation. Zoran confidently declared, “This is where we will implement the SUPERB restoration measures”. I must admit that at least the Dutch members of our team were initially sceptical. We doubted the possibility of oak trees successfully establishing themselves in such a large clearing. However, as we would soon discover, we were mistaken.

Afterwards, we took a brief boat ride along one of the Danube’s channels to look at the “European Amazon” from a different perspective.

Upon returning to the shore, we hopped back into our Dusters and made our way to a site that had been previously restored 12 years ago—a crucial chronosequence for the SUPERB project. After opening a sturdy fence, we were greeted by the sight of oak trees reaching a towering height of around 8 meters, growing alongside hornbeam, ash, and black locust, all thriving naturally. This site had been sown with acorns 12 years ago and was flourishing, proving that it was indeed possible.

However, it was evident that our hosts had put in tremendous effort, involving extensive manual labour, to erect strong fences to keep out the ca. 2000 red deer and hundreds of wild boars inhabiting the area. This region is, after all, one of Serbia’s largest hunting areas. Additionally, various interventions were necessary to eliminate weeds and other competitive vegetation, allowing the oaks to grow and prosper.

The second chronosequence, an 12 year old oak stand (Photo: Ajdin Starcevic)

Following this, we visited another oak stand that had been established just five years ago. While it looked promising, the soil quality posed a challenge, making it hard for us to believe that these saplings would reach the impressive 8-meter height we had seen earlier in only seven years. However, Zoran assured us it would work out, and by now, we had learned to trust his expertise.

Our learning experience related to the forest restoration measures we’ve seen illustrates the importance of local knowledge and expertise in projects like SUPERB. Another crucial factor to consider is the strong partnership forged between the managers and scientists. This collaboration has been nurtured and strengthened over the years, primarily grounded on a foundation of trust. We might have dismissed such an endeavour, but local forest managers and scientists understand what is possible and what they can achieve.

The team at the third chronosequence site, 5-year old oak stand with retention trees (Photo: Ajdin Starcevic)

View of the area where restoration measures are being implemented for SUPERB (Photo: Ajdin Starcevic)

On the second day, we were accompanied also by Christophe Orazio from the European Institute of Planted Forest, leader of SUPERB’s demo in France who specializes in plantation forestry. Together, we visited sites similar to those we had seen the day before. We also observed an area where SUPERB measures had been implemented but, unfortunately, achieved little success due to an unusually hot and dry summer that left the planted oak seedlings struggling. Here, additional work will be done, with new oak acorns to be sown in place of the earlier seedlings. Trees grown from acorns exhibit greater vigour, but during the initial campaign, there was a shortage of acorns, and time constraints forced the use of seedlings instead.

In addition to the oak forests in various stages of development, we also had the opportunity to explore poplar plantations, which are the backbone of the Public Enterprise Vojvodinašume. At one point, we observed two stands, one of oak and one of poplar, planted in the same year. The difference in size was striking (see picture below). As I took this photo, I noticed that the soybean field I stood on was perfectly divided between the two stands. The field next to the poplar plantation had already been harvested, appearing brown and dry, while the field opposite the oaks remained fresh and green. This observation perfectly encapsulated the work of these foresters. They are transitioning from a potentially dry and impoverished scenario, exacerbated by the impacts of climate change associated with poplars, toward a more climate-resilient oak forest. This oak forest is not only promising and green but also biodiverse and beautiful, reflecting their dedication to a sustainable and prosperous future.

Oak on the left, poplar on the right: difference in height of an oak and poplar stand planted at the same time (Photo: Ajdin Starcevic)

This is one of the key reasons why I would describe this trip as a pleasant surprise. The eagerness of the local foresters to shift from their conventional business practices towards a more climate-smart approach to forest management, all while considering the long-term effects of climate change and willingly sacrificing short-term profits for the betterment of future forests in the Vojvodina region, felt truly refreshing and makes me optimistic for the future of the European Amazon in challenging times.

SUPERB team where the Drava river meets the Danube

Meet the managers of the SUPERB demos in Spain, Sweden and Croatia!

superbadmin on September 5, 2022

Promoting peaceful coexistence between bears and humans, reconciling indigenous and industrial forest uses, and creating climate-change adapted forests in a former war zone: these are some of the challenges faced by our SUPERB demo areas in Spain, Sweden and Croatia.

At the SUPERB Governance Innovation Lab, the managers of the SUPERB demos in these three locations introduced their approaches to forest restoration and worked on solutions to their governance challenges together with a panel of experts.

Do you want to find out more about their work and meet the faces behind our restoration case studies? Then watch the video interviews below, recorded at the Lab:

Interview with Judit Torres (CESEFOR), SUPERB demo area in Spain

Interview with Anders Esselin (Man & Nature), SUPERB demo area in Sweden

Interview with Martina Đodan (Croatian Forest Research Institute), SUPERB demo area in Croatia/Serbia