The Mistra Board of Directors decided to grant a maximum of 60 million SEK for the first four-year phase of the research programme Future Forests — Sustainable Strategies under Uncertainty and Risk at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Umeå University and Skogforsk.
The forest and how we use it are in focus, and the objective of the programme is to develop useful and sustainable strategies for forest management in a future characterized by change. The challenge lies in getting the forest to suffice for meeting many different needs. Climate change, globalization, and an ever-increasing consumption of energy and raw materials increase demand for forest resources. Intensifying forestry in order to extract more timber, paper and energy — while at the same time maintaining biodiversity, recreation and other ecosystem services — is necessary, and a complex task. Future Forests is intended to be somewhat of a meeting place for researchers from different disciplines and end-users from different sectors of society. "The forest is one of Sweden´s primary industrial resources, and forest land use has become a defining question. Forestry can no longer take priority in land-use questions: we must use the forest in new ways. That is what Future Forests is going to focus on," says Ola Engelmark, Executive Director of Mistra.
The programme will be launched under the condition that the forestry branch matches Mistra´s funding contribution.
