Reforestation of forests and orchards after disturbances

As climate change intensifies the frequency of disturbances like fires, floods, and pests, the growing pressure for resilient landscapes demands a thoughtful reforestation strategy that delivers forests both productive and biodiversity-friendly. A complex challenge currently hindered by limited operator knowledge, which is precisely why we envisioned Bioreforest to mobilize specialized knowledge at a broader, supra-local scale.

BIOREFOREST is a new European research initiative (funded by Biodiversa+) addressing this challenge. Led by the University of Coburg and uniting partners from 6 European countries (France, Spain, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland). the project aims to develop an Explainable AI (XAI) decision-support tool prototype to help designing reforestation strategy. This system will be co-designed with its end users: forest managers, experts, biodiversity public policy officers. It will integrate geospatial data, biodiversity metagenomics, and practitioner expertise to provide actionable reforestation recommendations rooted in each actor’s economic context, specific forest settings and taking into account the evolution of disturbances in their area. Stakeholders participating in the project will have early access to reforestation practices recommendations considering their specific economic context, forest type, biodiversity settings and climate projections.

Stakeholder recommendations for the future tool will be compiled into a 'Recommendation Handbook', meant to shape European reforestation practices in the long term.

BIOREFOREST Flyer