Climate change and biodiversity loss are interdependent crises, but knowledge gaps on their interplays prevent effective risk assessment and solutions.Trees4Adapt ultimately aims to support decision-makers across the European Union (EU) to successfully assess and address complex risks from the climate and biodiversity crises.

This includes 1) establishing much-needed empirical understanding on the interdependencies of climate change (CC) and biodiversity loss (BL), and how these affect complex risks across socioeconomic contexts and spatiotemporal scales, and 2) assessing and providing evidence-based guidance on the design and implementation of tree-based solutions (a subset of nature-based solutions), enabling the EU to build climate resilience and enhance biodiversity, in a systemic way, while minimising trade-offs.

To do this, Trees4Adapt applies a mixed-methods, transdisciplinary, and stakeholder-centred approach that operates from the plot- to EU-level. It addresses five Key Community Systems3 and combines field-quantified understanding from multi-national research platforms [WP1] and real-world Case studies [WP2] with bioeconomic modelling [WP3] and high-resolution modelling and mapping of complex risks [WP4].

The project will provide regions with state-of-the-art risk assessments, improve the design and implementation of tree-based solutions, close knowledge gaps regarding the interdependencies of CC and BL, and create a community of EU stakeholders that are committed to addressing both crises. This will enable local-, regional-, and national-level decision-making including in relation to key policy initiatives such as the EU Green Deal’s Climate Adaptation, Biodiversity, and Forest Strategies, and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The Portuguese case study is located at Serra da Estrela.
 

Climate change and biodiversity loss are interdependent crises, but knowledge gaps on their interplays prevent effective risk assessment and solutions. Trees4Adapt will 1) enhance empirical understanding of climate change, biodiversity loss, their interdependencies, and how these influence risks; 2) develop evidence-informed tools and solutions that build climate resilience and support biodiversity at the same time. We focus particularly on tree-based solutions, which are nature-based solutions involving trees that promise to safeguard the EU by delivering cross-sectoral benefits, if we better tailor their design and implementation.

Trees4Adapt combines field-quantified understanding from multi-national research platforms and case studies representative of boreal, temperate, and Mediterranean biomes with novel bioeconomic modelling and high-resolution modelling and mapping of complex risks. Our activities operate from the plot- to EU-level, with interdisciplinary models developed during the project integrating the scale-dependent findings. Trees4Adapt applies co-creational approaches, and key stakeholders - including public administration and authorities - from the local - to EU levels will actively guide, inform, and participate in the project.

This will ensure the outputs of our research are useable, custom-made to stakeholders’ specific needs, and result in changes in decision-making and other impact in relation to recognised societal needs and key EU and global policy priorities including the Climate Adaptation, Forest, and Biodiversity Strategies. 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.