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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Demonstration sites accelerate learning. Practical demonstrations provide tested and transferable models, showing how restoration can work across diverse ecological and socio-economic contexts.
Restoration costs are highly variable. Costs depend on landscape conditions, the intensity and complexity of measures, spatial fragmentation, and opportunity costs for land users.
Scaling up requires policy alignment. Successful upscaling depends on aligning local practices and needs with broader policy frameworks and regulatory environments.
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.
FORWARDS via the European Forest Institute (EFI) has launched a new call for proposals, G-07-2025, inviting applications to establish Climate-Smart Forestry (CSF) and forest restoration pilot projects across Europe, with a strong focus on citizen and stakeholder engagement. The call aims to generate practical, region-specific evidence on how CSF and restoration approaches influence forest functioning and contribute to climate change mitigation, adaptation, and biodiversity, while addressing uncertainties and real-world implementation challenges.
A core element of the call is the active involvement of citizens and stakeholders in forest management. Coordinating with local communities and practitioners is crucial for the successful implementation of climate-smart solutions, ensuring that diverse perspectives and place-based knowledge are fairly integrated. Through stakeholder engagement, projects are expected to foster social learning, build trust, reduce marginalisation, and strengthen collective capacity for action, ultimately improving the effectiveness and uptake of sustainable forest management and adaptation measures.
Up to five grants of up to EUR 150,000 each will be awarded, across three thematic lots, for projects with a maximum duration of 12 months. Proposals must be received by EFI no later than 1 February 2026 at 21:00 (UTC+2). EFI encourages forest practitioners, researchers, and practitioner–science partnerships to apply and contribute to advancing climate-smart forestry and restoration practices across Europe.
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
Article written by Louisa Bouri-Saouter and Gesche Schifferdecker
When tourists come to visit Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, some wonder what has happened. Around the Lömecke Tower, an observation tower about 35 meters high in the Arnsberg Forest Nature Park, the once endless spruce forests are gone. Since 2018, about 133,000 hectares of spruce forest have been damaged by a series of calamities that triggered a snowball effect. Hurricane Friederike destroyed large areas of spruce forest and droughts weakened the trees further by reducing their resin production, a precious fluid which normally helps trees protect themselves against pests. Bark beetles, which mainly attack dying or weakened spruces, did not miss the opportunity.
Larissa Janzen, coordinator for the German Demonstration Area in the EU project SUPERB, recalls in our recent workshop: “It happened very quickly. We even heard stories of forest owners losing their entire forests in just two weeks!” For forestry professionals who have witnessed entire landscapes transform in record time, the sound of bark beetles destroying the trees is still unforgettable.
Calamities affected all altitudes, creating fragmented landscapes
However, despite the initial shock, restoration efforts were quickly initiated. Under the SUPERB project, restoration actions have been carried out across 29 demonstration sites (around 34 hectares) with different types of ownership – private, municipal, church, and state. The Wald und Holz team, the NRW lead partner in the SUPERB project, reports that 46% of the 133,000 hectares of calamity area have been reforested through natural regeneration of spruce and pine. “But it is important to note that these species might not be the best suited to face future conditions,” observes Larissa Janzen.
That is why another key restoration action implemented in North Rhine-Westphalia is the adaptation of tree species composition to climate change. To achieve this, the team creates species distribution models that take into account factors such as water availability, soil nutrients, temperature, and vegetation. They can then identify which species (including species which are currently not growing in NRW) could potentially grow and survive under new climate conditions in the area.
Larissa Janzen is showing the landscape transformation in record time around the Lömecke Tower
However, miscalculations can occur, and the uncertainty regarding the potential impacts of certain tree species on local ecosystems remains. For this reason, multiple species are often combined to increase their overall chances of survival.
Kilian Marx, a specialist in forest growth and introduced tree species at Wald und Holz, highlights the complexity of tree species selection: “Everyone talks about species first, but there are huge differences within the same species. For example, the Douglas fir has a coastal and an inland variant, but only the coastal one can be planted here because it can resist diseases such as the Swiss needle cast that would kill the inland type.”
All findings from the Wald und Holz work on tree species selection are shared with forest owners. Through a GIS-based tool, owners can explore which tree species would best fit on their sites through recommendations based on RCP (Representative Concentration Pathways) future climate projections. They can then make their own decisions about their forest management in alignment with both the federal and state forest laws.
Kilian Marx is talking to journalists during a field visit about the importance of tree species selection
An important component of climate-adapted forest restoration – what experts now call prestoration – begins outside the forest itself, in places like the Jungermann regional forest nursery, the “Kinderschule des Waldes,” where every tree’s journey starts as a seed in soil. Here, the work stretches from careful seed selection to optimizing genetics to finally raising the young plants that will repopulate damaged landscapes. Much has changed, says Nursery owner Stefan Jungermann: “Where once 7,000 seedlings were planted per hectare, today only about 2,000 are set into the ground.”
After the bark-beetle calamities, demand collapsed by more than 80% for water-hungry species, shifting attention toward mixed forests, though private forest owners still favor economically valuable conifers when state funding for broadleaves is lacking, Jungermann explains. The nursery cultivates seedlings on 8,000 square meters of harvest area, part of its total 130-hectare operation, and must adapt constantly to the risks of climate extremes. One wet winter wiped out an entire cohort of oak seedlings – 300,000 lost as acorns fouled in saturated soil. Late frost is even more dangerous: in February, if temperatures drop, the whole team wakes before dawn to spray the young plants, encasing them in a protective shell of ice. With the state of NRW providing 17 million euros for reforestation in 2025 – less the following year – every decision counts, from choosing between equally priced oak and larch (though oak is far costlier to maintain) to experimenting with “trendy” newcomers like sweet chestnut, atlas cedar, and Western Red Cedar. There is no single “tree of the future,” the Jungermann family insists; resilience will come from diversity and matching species to their sites.
Tourism, too, is undergoing a quiet transformation as the Sauerland landscape changes. Although visitor numbers have not declined, the region’s identity is shifting: the dense, seemingly endless spruce forests that once defined the area’s “green” image have largely disappeared – “revealing, in hindsight, how strongly monocultures had shaped the visual character of the landscape”, says Rouven Soyka, press officer at Sauerland Tourism. With 5,000 km², Sauerland still contains many intact and diverse forest areas, yet the contrast between damaged and healthy stands is unmistakable to hikers and holidaymakers. Climate change is also reshaping winter tourism, as snow reliability continues to drop and ski seasons shrink. To address public concerns and maintain transparency, the city of Arnsberg, foresters and tourism managers together have intensified the outreach, offering guided tours and organizing citizen planting days. While these volunteer plantings contribute little to large-scale restoration, they have proven invaluable for public engagement, helping visitors and residents alike understand the painstaking, decades-long process of rebuilding a resilient forest – and the new forms of beauty and biodiversity that may emerge.
In this careful choreography between climate, species, and human stewardship, the Wald und Holz team and their diverse local partners stand together at the quiet but crucial beginning of tomorrow’s forests.
After four years of intensive and inspiring collaboration between researchers, forestry practitioners, policymakers, NGOs, local communities, and forest and nature agencies, our community had the chance to reunite one last time for the SUPERB Final General Assembly (GA).
Held between the 10th and 12th of September in the heart of Europe, in beautiful Leuven, the GA hosted passionate exchanges about success stories, lessons learned and achievements from the 8 different work packages. As Elisabeth Schatzdorfer, project coordinator, nicely put it in her welcoming speech “This General Assembly is meant to appreciate together what we have achieved“.
After giving some historical context about the city of Leuven and its well-known university, KU Leuven, local host and engaging professor Bart Muys paved the way for the first session of the event, which focused on updates from the work packages.
Results of the “huge collective efforts,” as highlighted by Alex Bush, researcher at Lancaster University, were shared with an audience eager to hear about the diverse outcomes after four years of collaboration. For example, the WP6 (Ecosystem and Biodiversity Management) team presented some of their main deliverables, including the development of cost-efficient systems for monitoring biodiversity and ecosystem services. They used various techniques such as DNA metabarcoding, ecoacoustics, and drone-based remote sensing. WP3 (Practical Knowledge) leader, Iciar Alberdi highlighted her team’s scientific articles and infographic developed from 18 historical national narratives on the evolution of forest restoration. Another main achievement, from WP5 (Governance and Society), was the creation of a toolkit for exploring public perspectives on restoration and monitoring governance of restoration projects in the EU.
An important part of these diverse new resources can be now found on the Forest Knowledge Gateway, another major achievement of WP8 (working on Upscaling Forest Restoration), which even had its own dedicated spot in different following session. As explained to a very engaged audience by Gesche Schifferdecker, Communications Manager, the Gateway website is a curated and science-based knowledge platform designed to provide different types of stakeholders with the information they need for their forest restoration and integrative forest management activities and projects. Thomas Lundhede, leader of WP4 (The economics and innovative sustainable financing of restoration) followed with an introduction of the Marketplace, a platform now also linked to the Gateway, which aims to help match nature-positive projects (such as large-scale restoration projects) with potential funders.
The Forest Knowledge Gateway presentation began with a much-needed stretching session
In the afternoon, our consortium members got new perspectives through discussions about good practices from SUPERB’s demo sites and from the results of various research outputs, presented either as oral presentations or posters. Those sessions were organised in different rooms to allow for more in-depth discussions on a range of quite fascinating topics: planning and design of bee highways, acoustic monitoring of birds and bats as indicators of forest restoration, post-fire treatments in Mediterranean forests… and many more.
Poster presentation
On our way to Leuven’s Faculty Club to conclude the day with a sophisticated multi-course vegan dinner, Bart Muys gave us the pleasure of telling us the story of Leuven and particularly of the Grand Beguinage, an historic area we walked through, established around 1232 as a community for religious women.
This was a beautiful conclusion to a first day at the General Assembly that was as intense as it was cheerful!
Bart Muys is organizing an historical visit around Leuven
The second day started with individual Work Package parallel sessions. Teams discussed the outcomes of their collaborations and how they plan to continue disseminating their knowledge. These collective takeaways were later shared with the entire SUPERB assembly.
From these discussions emerged a shared feeling of wanting to upscale and build upon the knowledge acquired over the past four years. Iciar Alberdi, leader of WP3, shared that they would also like to highlight all the methods they have been using in their work while Jürgen Bauhus, leader of WP6, emphasized that several steps still need to be taken to fully understand the effects of restoration on biodiversity. Others discussed the final deliverables to come, as well as their strong willingness to continue collaborating and to maintain the large and vibrant community they have built. The “Building Upon” sessions of the day reflected these shared aspirations.
“These large-scale collaborations are leaving an important legacy, and the communities will continue building beyond SUPERB,” expressed Elisabeth Schatzdorfer, EFI Principal Scientist and SUPERB Coordinator, during the closing of the General Assembly. She also expressed her deep gratitude to researchers, implementers, demo representatives for their great work, as well as to all the administrative and finance staff working diligently behind the scenes.
The day concluded on a joyful note with the “SUPERB song” written by Gesche Schifferdecker, celebrating the project’s great collaborative spirit and its lasting legacy, embodied in the Gateway.
Of course, the General Assembly wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the forest. Now it was time to see restoration in action, making the lessons discussed over the past few days come alive!
On the last day, a group of participants joined our excursion to the Netherlands, starting with a visit to the inspiring Dutch Demo site in Horst aan de Maas. Amusement parks, horse-riding centers, agricultural lands… and of course forests, the landscape mosaic perfectly reflected the diversity of land uses in the area. When it comes to the forest, 150 years ago it was actually almost non-existent. The landscape consisted mainly of heathlands and sandy dunes with poor soil. Around 1900, pines were planted, and the harvested wood was primarily used for the mining industry. Over time, management practices evolved, and thanks to restoration and recreation purposes, the forest has become much more multifunctional, with a greater variety of tree species such as oaks and beeches, and a more diversified age structure.
The biggest challenge for restoration remained soil acidification, as nutrient cycles have been disturbed. This explains the philosophy of this demo “restoration starts with soils!” Several measures have been applied to restore soil health, starting with hydrological restoration to improve the water system and reduce dehydration. The team also planted Tilia trees, a species producing nutrient-rich litter, on soils that are still relatively healthy and contain minerals such as calcium, potassium, and magnesium. These trees help bring minerals back to the surface from deeper levels in the grounds as their leaves decompose. They planted at least five trees per patch are already « human-sized » to further increase survival chances.
Tilia tree
Another, quite impressive measure was the use of helicopters to spread rock dust and replenish missing minerals. The Dutch demo team has also planted over 28 different species to observe how they respond to climate change and adapt to new conditions. By making the forest more resilient, they are also aiming at combating diseases affecting the area and particularly pine and fir trees.
Another interesting aspect of their work, as emphasized by Dutch demo manager Maaike de Graaf, is the dialogue with private owners. These private owners manage forest plots ranging from 1 to 50 hectares and represent about 30% of the area, while municipalities own about two-thirds. Many private owners are willing to actively co-create more biodiverse forests together with the Dutch team and have agreed to significantly reduce harvesting, from usually 6 cubic meters per hectare to just 1.
After a pleasant lunch stop at a Café, the group headed to Groote Heide, a forest area planted around 120 years ago, notable for its many fens. Participants enjoyed a walk through a forest dominated by broadleaf trees, with a rich diversity of species including hornbeam, Tilias, Corsican pines, and birch.
For about 25 years, forest management had focused on hydrology and biodiversity, but the landscape looked quite different in the past, as our host showed us on a map from 1968. Large clear-cut areas and farmland were visible. In the early 1900s, when the forest was first planted, water production companies drained fens, and groundwater extraction became important for regional drinking water.
The Groote Heide area in 1968
In recent years, the priorities changed and water companies, which remain heavily involved in landscape management, have renovated extraction infrastructure and filled in ditches, allowing water production and nature protection to coexist. Forest managers implementing restoration measures in the area have also observed that filling the ditches contributed significantly to restoring soil diversity.
Retaining dead wood is another key measure in the area. Our host shared an interesting fact about how moss species began growing on large dead trunks, species that haven’t been seen in the South of the Netherlands for many years.
Our brave participants on the excursion, the last day of the GA
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.
Stakeholder engagement is a critical component for European Member States to consider when drafting their National Restoration Plans by September 2026, as mandated by the European Union Nature Restoration Regulation.
Understanding and addressing stakeholder engagement is essential, as conflicts around restoration are not uncommon. However, they are often the result of insufficient involvement of individuals or stakeholders groups, which may feel overlooked or uniformed, and the lack of attention to public concerns at an early stage.
Opposition to restoration also often stems from limited understanding of the synergies that can arise between restoration and long-term economic development and other ecosystem services.
Our new policy brief gives key recommendations to produce clear messages on restorations plans and objectives while having an inclusive approach. True listening, open discussions, and transparency about how input will be incorporated in restoration plans are vital for establishing trust and ownership.
Readers will learn how to foster meaningful long-term engagement while achieving social justice in restoration efforts, how to strengthen a positive narrative and overall dialogue while targeting communication, and more.
This new policy and practice brief was written by the ‘Restoration Cluster’, a collaborative initiative of four major EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation project funded under the Green Deal and focusing on ecosystem restoration: MERLIN (restoration of freshwater-related ecosystems in a landscape context), REST-COAST (restoration of coastal ecosystems), SUPERB (forest and forest landscape restoration) and WaterLANDS (restoration of wetlands), with particular support by Prospex Institute and European Forest Institute.
A new article from researchers involved in SUPERB underscores how social media platforms can serve as valuable sources for climate and environmental journalism. Published as the first in a two-part series titled “Climate Reporting: 5 Tips for Sourcing Stories Online,” the piece offers practical guidance for journalists seeking to use digital data to better understand public engagement with nature and restoration initiatives.
The SUPERB project provided the research basis for this work. By analysing online conversations across five digital platforms and twelve European forest sites, including our demonstration sites in Scotland’s Queen Elizabeth Forest Park and Romania’s Făgăraș Mountains, the researchers demonstrated how online engagement can reveal diverse and evolving narratives about forests, biodiversity, and ecological recovery.
The authors Thais Lobo (Kings Colleague London/KCL), Rina Tsubaki (European Forest Institute), Liliana Bounegru, Jonathan Gray (both KCL), and Gabriele Colombo (Politechnical University of Milan) emphasize that social media data, while not neutral, can offer rich leads for environmental storytelling when used critically. Their checklist advises journalists to “mind the platform,” “collect creatively,” and “search smart,” reflecting the varied ways people and communities relate to nature online.
Importantly, the research highlights that looking beyond viral trends can help surface under-represented voices and perspectives, such as local citizens, seasonal workers, and lesser-known species that form part of restoration ecosystems. These insights are vital for projects like SUPERB, which aim to connect ecological restoration with social inclusion and public participation.
As part of SUPERB’s broader mission to enhance Europe’s forest resilience, the study positions digital platforms as powerful tools for transparency, engagement, and evidence-based storytelling – bridging the gap between scientific research, community experience, and public awareness in the climate crisis.
What if a play could change the way we see forests?
In a small rehearsal room at the University of Glasgow, words gathered like leaves. They weren’t just any words, but the real voices of forestry practitioners, researchers, and policymakers: thirty people who spend their lives among trees, wrestling with the question of how to care for them in a rapidly changing climate.
Those voices became Three Words for Forest: Exploring Uncertainty in a Time of Climate Crisis, a verbatim theatre production co-created by University of Glasgow’s Professor Deirdre Heddon and Dr Rachel Clive, which can also be watched online now.
Performed by a professional creative team, the play doesn’t shy away from difficult conversations. It dives into the tensions and uncertainties of forestry today: the urgency of climate change, the spread of disease, the pressure to plant millions of new trees, and the disagreements about the best way forward. Yet through it all runs a deep current of care – for forests, for landscapes, and for future generations.
The project is part of newLEAF, a research programme within the UK’s Future of Treescapes, which explores how trees adapt to climate change and the vital role humans play in their survival. With only 13% of the UK currently covered in woodland, and the government pledging to increase that significantly, the stakes could not be higher. Resilience will depend not just on science, but on people – people willing to connect, learn, and imagine together.
Now, thanks to new funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the filmed play will be shared more widely. Accessible versions – complete with audio description, sign language interpretation, and supported viewing formats – open the conversation to more communities. Workshop guides are also being created so schools, community groups, and forestry organisations can use the film as a springboard for dialogue and reflection.
For Professor Heddon, this is about building what she calls forest citizenship:
“Our research showed that forestry specialists want better conversations across differing views, and that while the public cares about forests, many feel disconnected from the forestry sector. This funding allows us to build bridges and raise awareness of forestry as a career and sector.”
Dr Clive, who co-wrote and directed the play, sees theatre itself as a bridge:
“Theatre helps us to connect emotionally and practically with change. This funding lets us co-create new resources with partners to support wider engagement with the play’s insights.”
The project has also drawn praise from scientists within newLEAF. Dr Stephen Cavers of the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology highlights how the arts are helping bring diverse voices together:
“Three Words for Forest has really shown the power of interdisciplinary collaboration, to connect us with new audiences and highlight the voices of the diverse community of people engaged with our trees and forests.”
And for Dr David Edwards of Forest Research, the project shows how creativity can unlock new ways of seeing:
“The project demonstrates the power of the arts and humanities to collaborate meaningfully with scientists and help us see the world in new ways. The follow-on funding will help more people connect with forest science, foresters, and forests.”
In a time when the climate crisis can feel overwhelming, Three Words for Forest invites us into a different kind of conversation – not just about what we can do for forests, but about what forests mean to us, and how listening to each other might shape a more resilient future.
Featured image: Production Forestry – Charlotte Driessler, Helen Cuinn and Tam Dean Burn (Photo credit: Rachel Clive)
For the first time, Eternal Forest and Faia Brava join efforts to create a sanctuary where contemporary art meets nature conservation — in Portugal’s first private protected area, which in 2025 celebrates its 25th anniversary.
This event will bring together thinkers, decision-makers, and key actors in the fields of art and ecosystem regeneration.
Through a crowdfunding campaign, they invite you to take part and support this first phase of the project.
On November 7–8, 2025, the initiative will take the first steps to seed a forest that is not only regenerative and biodiverse but also a living work of art. Created through the partnership of Eternal Forest, a global art and ecology initiative founded in Portugal, and Faia Brava – Associação de Conservação da Natureza, a protected reserve stewarded for 25 years, this will be a forest like no other.
You are warmly invited to join Eternal Forest in person on the days of November 2025 at Faia Brava for this unforgettable gathering. Come plant the first trees through a regenerative artistic design, meet the artists, scientists, and guardians, and take part in an experience of art and poetry, along with a symposium on art, forest, and community in collaboration with the Côa Park Foundation — an event open to all who wish to participate, support, or witness this historic moment.
🌿 This is just the beginning: first chapter of a long-term vision, first forest sanctuary out of 1,000!
The planting in November is not a one-off event — it’s the first chapter of a multi-generational project that will unfold over the years. Eternal Forest Faia Brava will grow slowly and meaningfully, rooted in care, co-creation, and ecological knowledge.
This crowdfunding campaign will provide them with the resources to not only deliver the first phase and the event in November, but also to develop vital research and collaborative designs that can be replicated to grow Eternal Forests all over Portugal.
By contributing to this campaign, you are planting the first seeds of a sanctuary that will continue to grow over generations, ecologically, artistically, and communally.
🌿 What this campaign supports
With your help, the initiative hopes to raise €22,000 to fund the Seed of Eternal Forest Faia Brava, the Phase 1 of the project, including:
Organise an artistic residency and a technical visit at Faia Brava to do on-site research and ecological listening to select the most meaningful planting location, while connecting to local community, initiatives and planning the project
Create a collaborative design of the forest sanctuary: artist Evgenia Emets and regenerative designer Maurício Umann of Fractal Regenerative Technologies, together with biodiversity specialists and plant experts, focusing on creating habitats
Prepare the site and plant the first trees in November, including transport, logistics, plants, materials and equipment
Organise the Seeding Eternal Forest in Faia Brava Symposium in collaboration with Côa Museum
Community gathering and village celebration
Filming of the process of creating the Eternal Forest Sanctuary + short trailer
A digital and physical publication about the process of creating Eternal Forest Sanctuary
🌿 Why Eternal Forest is creating this project
This Eternal Forest is an invitation to long-term thinking. They are creating a habitat for the future old-growth forest, not a plantation. A seed of Eternal Forest – native species will be planted in an artistic design — guided by biodiversity, artistic vision, regenerative design and a deep respect for place.
The forest will grow alongside artistic residencies, education, and community participation, becoming a space of beauty, resilience, and cultural continuity.
The site sits in the Côa Valley, home to some of Europe’s most extraordinary prehistoric engravings and paintings — a region where nature and culture have always been entwined.
Eternal Forest began in Portugal in 2018 and has since grown into an international network of artists, ecologists, and communities. Our vision is to create 1,000 forest sanctuaries protected for 1,000 years – and Faia Brava will be the very first. https://www.eternalforest.earth/
Faia Brava is Portugal’s first classified Private Protected Area, part of the Natura 2000 network, IBA and Côa Archaeological Park (UNESCO). Spanning 1,000 ha of sustainably managed natural landscapes, it features stunning landscape of Côa River with wild cliffs, native forest of cork oaks, holm oaks. It provides critical habitat for griffon and Egyptian vultures, golden and Bonelli’s eagles, and black storks. Emblematic species like wildcats, otters, roe deer, and wild boar help sustain the ecosystem and naturally reduce wildfire risk.
Image credits: Marco Piano, Eternal Forest
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cookielawinfo-checkbox-others
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
CookieLawInfoConsent
1 year
CookieYes sets this cookie to record the default button state of the corresponding category and the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie.
rc::a
never
This cookie is set by the Google recaptcha service to identify bots to protect the website against malicious spam attacks.
rc::b
session
This cookie is set by the Google recaptcha service to identify bots to protect the website against malicious spam attacks.
rc::c
session
This cookie is set by the Google recaptcha service to identify bots to protect the website against malicious spam attacks.
rc::f
never
This cookie is set by the Google recaptcha service to identify bots to protect the website against malicious spam attacks.
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
VISITOR_PRIVACY_METADATA
6 months
YouTube sets this cookie to store the user's cookie consent state for the current domain.
wpEmojiSettingsSupports
session
WordPress sets this cookie when a user interacts with emojis on a WordPress site. It helps determine if the user's browser can display emojis properly.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Cookie
Duration
Description
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE
6 months
A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface.
yt-remote-cast-available
session
The yt-remote-cast-available cookie is used to store the user's preferences regarding whether casting is available on their YouTube video player.
yt-remote-cast-installed
session
The yt-remote-cast-installed cookie is used to store the user's video player preferences using embedded YouTube video.
yt-remote-connected-devices
never
YouTube sets this cookie to store the user's video preferences using embedded YouTube videos.
yt-remote-device-id
never
YouTube sets this cookie to store the user's video preferences using embedded YouTube videos.
yt-remote-fast-check-period
session
The yt-remote-fast-check-period cookie is used by YouTube to store the user's video player preferences for embedded YouTube videos.
yt-remote-session-app
session
The yt-remote-session-app cookie is used by YouTube to store user preferences and information about the interface of the embedded YouTube video player.
yt-remote-session-name
session
The yt-remote-session-name cookie is used by YouTube to store the user's video player preferences using embedded YouTube video.
ytidb::LAST_RESULT_ENTRY_KEY
never
The cookie ytidb::LAST_RESULT_ENTRY_KEY is used by YouTube to store the last search result entry that was clicked by the user. This information is used to improve the user experience by providing more relevant search results in the future.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Cookie
Duration
Description
_ga
1 year 1 month 4 days
Google Analytics sets this cookie to calculate visitor, session and campaign data and track site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognise unique visitors.
_ga_*
1 year 1 month 4 days
Google Analytics sets this cookie to store and count page views.
YSC
session
YSC cookie is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos on Youtube pages.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Cookie
Duration
Description
__Secure-ROLLOUT_TOKEN
6 months
YouTube sets this cookie to manage feature rollout and experimentation. It helps Google control which new features or interface changes are shown to users as part of testing and staged rollouts, ensuring consistent experience for a given user during an experiment.
__Secure-YNID
6 months
YouTube cookie used to protect user security and prevent fraud, especially during the login process.
yt.innertube::nextId
never
YouTube sets this cookie to register a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen.
yt.innertube::requests
never
YouTube sets this cookie to register a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen.
