Call for Proposals: Citizen and Stakeholder Engagement in Climate-Smart Forestry and Forest Restoration

Forests provide a variety of ecosystem services for society, including climate regulation, biodiversity, and recreation. The escalating threat of climate change poses significant challenges to forest services and productivity, evident in recent disturbances such as extreme wildfires, windstorms, and insect outbreaks. To enhance forest resilience and the ability of the forest to cope with the potential impacts of climate change, a holistic forest management approach is needed. Climate-Smart Forestry (CSF) has been introduced as a holistic approach to guide forest management in Europe and builds on the concepts of sustainable forest management, with particular emphasis on climate and ecosystem services.

CSF integrates mitigation with adaptation measures to enhance the resilience of forest resources and ecosystem services while addressing the needs of the society. Its framework encompasses three interconnected components: increasing carbon storage in forests and wood products while providing additional ecosystem services, enhancing the health and resilience of forests through adaptive management practices, and promoting the sustainable use of wood resources as substitutes for non-renewable, carbon-intensive materials. Additionally, CSF incorporates restoration efforts, which involve the rehabilitation of degraded forest areas to improve their ecological functionality and overall health.

Crucial to the effective implementation of CSF is coordination with citizens and stakeholders—having a shared vision of what the forest should look like and provide, and co-producing knowledge. The engagement of citizens and stakeholders is important to ensure that diverse interests, perspectives, and local knowledge are integrated into the creation of sustainability solutions. Engagement contributes to the avoidance of marginalization of under-represented participants in decision-making, increases stakeholder trust and capacity to implement actions, and fosters social learning where stakeholders can cultivate new knowledge while forging new relationships. Collaborative decision-making processes can thereby enhance the effectiveness of adaptation measures and to improve the adoption of sustainability initiatives by addressing the needs and concerns of various stakeholders in forest management.

Objectives

• FORWARDS is a project funded by the European Union that will prototype the Forest-Ward Observatory, a pan-European monitoring and evaluation system that will help assess how European forests respond to the impacts of climate change. It will document current restoration activities concerning forests, biodiversity, carbon, and soils, and explore various restoration options to guide decision-making processes towards climate-smart forest management. One of the aims of the FORWARDS project is to engage and empower citizens and stakeholders in the co-creation of solutions that will support the future of forests amidst climate change challenges.
• In line with this goal, this grant call seeks to foster the development of inclusive initiatives that encourage the participation of citizens and stakeholders in decision-making processes for CSF and forest restoration at the forest management or policy level. Specifically, it aims to strengthen participatory governance by supporting the creation of structures and processes that actively involve citizens and stakeholders in the development of forest management and restoration strategies—on forest holdings or at governance levels. The call promotes the use of innovative methods to engage citizens and stakeholders creatively and in two way communication, allowing them to co-design solutions and contribute their unique knowledge and perspectives for the development of CSF and forest restoration initiatives. This approach ensures that the results resonate effectively with diverse stakeholder groups, fostering greater uptake and implementation of outcomes. In doing so, the grant aims to empower local communities, ensuring their active involvement in policy-related dialogues and decision-making processes, while supporting the scaling-up of climate-smart forest restoration efforts across Europe.

Funding Information

• Up to five grants will be awarded in this call, with each project receiving funding up to €24,750. These may build on previous activities and may be co-financed with own or other sources, but double financing of the same activities is not allowed. Retroactive funding is also not allowed, meaning that a grant may not fund activities that have already been completed. Projects may start by January/February 2026 at the earliest, with an implementation period of up to 18 months.

Supported Projects and Activities

• This call will support activities that employ various levels of societal engagement ranging from local community initiatives to larger regional or national programmes in Europe. Supported projects and activities will either complement existing, or implement new, social engagement activities in the context of CSF or forest restoration.
• Two-way communication is an important requirement to ensure continuous and reciprocal communication where different types of stakeholders and citizens actively contribute their perspectives and feedback. This collaborative approach empowers participants to shape decisions and co-create solutions in forest management and restoration. Novel engagement ideas are encouraged to ensure that supported activities remain dynamic and adaptable to changing needs and opportunities in forest management and climate resilience, as well as to foster a culture of creativity and experimentation among citizens and stakeholders. Continuous, long-term involvement of citizens in forest-related issues may be achieved by institutionalising the exchange with citizens on forest-related decisions in established structures or processes such as stakeholder boards, citizen panels, or joint forms of forest stewardship.
• Considering the preceding content, this call invites applications for projects that meet either of the following objectives:
  • Implement creative engagement strategies that strengthen collaborations across stakeholder groups and governance levels: Facilitate cooperation between communities, policymakers, researchers, educational or training institutions, interest groups, non-profit initiatives, or other organizations while ensuring participation across local, regional, and national levels. Projects may explore storytelling, art-based, and interactive methods to create inclusive and dynamic engagement processes
  • Implement community-driven approaches that ensure sustainability and long-term impact: Support the development of strategies or structures that extend beyond the project duration while ensuring that outputs remain relevant and actionable. Projects may involve co-creating policy visions (e.g., plans or other materials), developing forest management planning tools, establishing participatory frameworks, or forming citizen-led groups (e.g., social initiatives, non-profit organisations, voluntary networks) to sustain outcomes in forest governance and policy.

Eligibility Criteria

• Grant applications can be submitted by one legal entity or a consortium of legal entities.
• Applicants must, by the deadline for submission of the Application, meet the following criteria to be eligible for the grant:
  • Applicant is a legal entity (legal person)
  • Applicant is eligible for funding under the European Union Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme
• Applications not fulfilling the above stated eligibility criteria will be rejected.

Ineligibility Criteria

• Furthermore, the following legal entities (legal persons) will not be eligible for funding:
  • Beneficiary or associated partner of the FORWARDS project under the Grant Agreement No. 101084481
  • Entities subject to European Union restrictive measures
  • Israeli entities due to activities in the territories occupied by Israel (European Commission Guidelines No 2013/C 205/05)
  • Public interest trusts established under the Hungarian Act IX of 2021 or any entity maintained by such a public interest trust (Council Implementing Decision 2022/2506)
  • Legal entities established in Russia, Belarus, or in non-government-controlled territories of Ukraine

For more information, visit EC.