SafeNet – Safeguarding biodiversity and carbon-rich forest networks in Europe

Funding: Horizon Europe
Running Period: 2025–2028
Project Staff: Jiayun Zou, Sebastian Seibold

Diverse and healthy forests are vital for biodiversity, human well-being, and climate regulation, supporting 80% of terrestrial species, sequestering 30% of anthropogenic CO₂ emissions, and providing valuable resources. However, primary and old-growth forests—key to biodiversity and carbon storage—cover less than 3% of European forests and remain largely unprotected. Intensive forest use and climate change are degrading ecosystems, weakening species resilience, and accelerating biodiversity loss.

SafeNet aims to conserve biodiversity and carbon-rich forest ecosystems in the European Union (EU) and its Member States that face considerable risks due to climate change and unsustainable land use while being expected to meet societal demand for natural resources and ecosystem services. The project combines advanced analyses of climate impacts on forests and biodiversity with collaborative development of management and policy solutions. SafeNet will deliver integrated knowledge to further guide conservation, restoration, and sustainable management of EU carbon-rich forests.

To support these efforts, we will improve tools and techniques for identifying primary and old-growth forests, and monitoring multi-taxon biodiversity. Furthermore, we will use field data to validate the predictive models and biodiversity projection at the European scale.

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Project website: https://safenet-project.eu/