Pilots

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  Italian Living Lab - Valle Tanaro

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  The Italian Living Lab is located in the Valle Tanaro, encompassing 34 municipalities and 67,264 hectares, with forests covering 61% of the land. The valley features extensive forests of chestnuts, beeches, Scots pines, mountain pines, and larches. This environment provides an ideal testing ground to develop potential solutions for sustainable and beneficial forest management through a participatory process with local stakeholders and to validate the market models for ecosystem services proposed by the Forest EcoValue project.
  
  The area offers a diverse ecosystem that supports vital ecosystem services, such as biodiversity conservation, CO2 sequestration, water purity, and outdoor activities linked to ecotourism. Furthermore, the territory is well-suited for exploring various market opportunities, including those related to local products and timber, as well as untapped potential in green chemistry.
  
   
  
  For more information on the Italian Living Lab go to the national webpage (in Italian): https://www.finpiemonte.it/progetti-strategici/forestecovalue-livinglab-piemonte

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  Slovenian Living Lab - Tržič Municipality

  Located in the northern part of Slovenia lies one of the pilot areas of ForestEcoValue, the Municipality of Tržič. With forests accounting for 72.7% of the landscape, Tržič offers a diverse terrain, from mountains in the north to hills and flatlands in the south.

  
  

  Tržič is a region rich in opportunities waiting to be explored. With a strong tradition of close-to-nature forest management and abundant natural resources, the municipality provides a promising environment for sustainable forestry practices.

  
  

  Additionally, a substantial portion of Tržič's forests serves a crucial protective role, mitigating natural hazards and ensuring community safety. Yet, Tržič also embraces leisure and tourism, witnessing a growing interest in recreational activities over recent years.

  
  

  From timber and biomass production to carbon sequestration and natural hazard mitigation, these forests offer valuable ecosystem services benefiting both local residents and the environment.

  
   
  
  For more information on the Slovenian Living Lab go to the national webpage (in Slovenian): http://www.zgs.si/zavod/mednarodni_projekti/forest_ecovalue/index.html

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  German Living Lab - Bad-Tölz - Wolfratshausen and Miesbach

  The German Living Lab is located in the districts of Bad-Tölz - Wolfratshausen and Miesbach and is forested with a share of 53 % of the total area. The main tree species in the area is spruce, with a share of 60 %, followed by beech with 15 %, hardwood with 11 % and fir with 6 %. The forest landscape is mainly characterized by mixed forests. Around 41% of the forest is in state ownership, around 4% belongs to the municipalities and over half of the forest is privately owned (55%). The forest in the Living Lab plays a major role as a supplier of raw materials and serves as an important side income for many farms (Amt für Ernährung, Landwirtschaft und Forsten Holzkirchen 2024). The Living Lab lays in popular hiking areas like Isarwinkel or the Tegernsee valley and is criss-crossed by many hiking trails and alpine pastures. In addition to timber production and the recreational benefits of the forest, ecosystem services such as CO₂ storage, provision of clean drinking water, natural hazard protection or the provision of habitats for wild animals and plants are of particular importance.

  
   
  

  Source: Amt für Ernährung, Landwirtschaft und Forsten Holzkirchen (2024): Unser Wald im Amtsbereich, https://www.aelf-hk.bayern.de/forstwirtschaft/wald/093202/index.php (Last retrieved: 02.04.2024).

  
   
  
  For more information on the German Living Lab go to the national webpage (in German): https://www.ifuplan.de/de/kompetenzen/oekosystemleistungen/forest-ecovalue

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  French Living Lab - Grand Annecy Agglomération

  Grand Annecy Agglomération, situated in the Haute-Savoie department at the frontier of France and Switzerland, comprises 34 cities with 250,000 inhabitants. Nestled in the Alps, it boasts medium-altitude mountains and the picturesque Lake of Annecy, surrounded by forests covering 31% of the area. Popular for year-round living and tourism, it attracts 2 million tourists annually, offering activities like hiking Mont Veyrier, skiing Mont Semnoz, and enjoying the old city center. The region's forests support recreational activities and are crucial for tourism and inhabitants' outdoor pursuits. Stakeholders, including tourism-related businesses and companies benefitting from the lifestyle, support forest management. The area relies on the lake and forest springs for water, with protection forests playing a vital role in mitigating risks like rock falls. Biodiversity protection zones, such as Parc Naturel des Bauges and Réserve Naturelle Nationale du Roc de Cher, safeguard various habitats. Forests in Grand Annecy comprise mixed and coniferous stands, facing challenges from climate change, notably with bark beetle attacks on spruce trees. Among these, 75% are private forest while 25% are public forests. The political agenda includes meetings on forests, trees, and wood, focusing on vulnerability and resource management. Initiatives like "250,000 arbres" aim to plant a tree per inhabitant, while the "Plan Sylvicole de Territoire" with Sylvactes promotes forestry actions.
  
   
  
  For more information on the French Living Lab go to the national webpage (in French): https://lessem.lyon-grenoble.hub.inrae.fr/forest-ecovalue

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  Austrian Living Lab - Styria region

  The Austrian Living Lab encompasses the entire state of Styria, Austria's most forest-rich state, boasting a forestation rate of 61.4%. Due to the heterogeneous geography ranging from floodplains and wine regions at 200m above sea level to high alpine areas up to 3,000m, the forest composition is very diverse. This includes typical riparian forests in the south with poplar, willow, alder, and oak, to lower acid soil areas with beech-oak forests with fir and sweet chestnut in the east, to spruce, beech, pine, fir, ash, sycamore in the mid-altitudes, and up to larch and stone pine in the high mountains. 65% of the forest is coniferous, 27% is mixed forest, and 8% is deciduous forest. 17.2% of the forest area is a protection forest. Thanks to legally mandated reforestation and sustainable usage, the forest area is increasing, thus acting as an important CO2 sink. Styria is unique in Austria for its "dynamic forest typification," which allows even laypeople to select climate-adapted tree species, thereby enhancing stability as well as biodiversity. 22.9% of Styria's forests are owned by large forest owners (more than 1000 ha), 55% are owned by small forest owners (less than 200 ha), and ca. 9% is owned by the Austrian Federal Forests Corporation. The forest is responsible for 1/6 of Styria's economic output. Styrian forests provide a range of important ecosystem services, from timber provision and CO2 sequestration to protection, habitat maintenance, and recreation functions.
  
   
  
  For more information about the Austrian Living Lab, go to the national webpage (in German):  https://www.holzcluster-steiermark.at/projekte/forest-ecovalue/