Trees4Adapt

CHALLENGE

Climate change and biodiversity loss are deeply interconnected crises, and these interactions create complex risks for ecosystems and societies. Yet major knowledge gaps remain on how climate and biodiversity influence each other, making it difficult for decision‑makers to assess risks and develop effective solutions.

OBJECTIVE

Trees4Adapt aims to improve empirical understanding of climate change, biodiversity loss and their interdependencies, and to develop evidence‑informed tools and solutions that build climate resilience while supporting biodiversity. The project focuses particularly on tree‑based solutions, which are nature‑based solutions involving trees and have the potential to deliver cross‑sectoral benefits when their design and implementation are carefully tailored to local contexts.

Visit the Trees4Adapt website

APPROACH

Trees4Adapt combines long‑term field evidence from international research platforms with case studies representing boreal, temperate and Mediterranean regions. These include work on:

• Diversifying Finland’s boreal forests, using long‑running tree species diversity experiments to understand how increasing species and genetic diversity can improve resilience in planted forest landscapes.
• Agroforestry systems in temperate Germany, understanding how the integration of trees into farming networks enhance biodiversity and support agricultural livelihoods.
• Mediterranean post‑fire landscapes in Portugal, assessing whether greater tree diversity can help slow fire spread and support recovery.

These site‑based insights are integrated into novel bioeconomic modelling and high‑resolution mapping approaches, enabling the project to analyse complex climate–biodiversity risks from the plot scale up to the EU level.

Trees4Adapt uses co‑creation throughout the process, working closely with public authorities, policymakers and other key stakeholders at local, national and European levels. Their involvement helps ensure that research outputs are useful, aligned with real needs and contribute to major policy priorities such as the EU Climate Adaptation Strategy, Forest Strategy and Biodiversity Strategy.

Trees4Adapt’s consortium consists of leading experts on climate change science, ecosystems and land use changes, nature-based solutions, transdisciplinary and participatory research, bioeconomics, environmental policy, risk assessment and modelling. Ultimately, Trees4Adapt aims to work with and support EU decision-makers to successfully assess and address complex risks from climate change and biodiversity loss. 

CORDIS LINK