Title: Project FP 7 MOTIVE – Models for adaptive forest management in Europe

Acronym: MOTIVE

Domain: Environment
Type of the project: MOTIVE is a large-scale integrating project (project number 226544) funded under the specific programme on ‘Cooperation’ and a funding scheme ‘Collaborative projects’.

Financing:
This project is financed by the European Commission under the theme "Environment" (including Climate Change) of the Framework Program for Research and Technological Development FP7, Grant agreement no.: 226 544, USV partner contract no. 226544/22.05.2009.
Co-financing (25%) is provided through contract 142-1EU/12.07.2011 signed with the UEFISCDI (Unitatea Executiva pentru Finantarea Invatamantului Superior, a Cercetarii, Dezvoltarii si Inovarii), Program PN II Capacities - FP7- Module III (25%).

Project duration: 01.05.2009 – 04.30.2013

Romanian co-financing duration: 12.07.2011-30.04.2013

Budget:
Total budget MOTIVE: 6.96 million euro from which USV budget: 125760 euro
Budget co-financing MOTIVE 25% for USV partner: 144060 lei

Contact person from USV:
Laura Bouriaud,
bouriaud@usv.ro
Str. Universitatii, 13, 720229 Suceava,
Tel. + 40 741101174.


    Download Project abstract (pdf)


Project description:

MOTIVE investigates adaptive management strategies that address climate and land use change. It also examines the impacts of these changes with respect to a broad range of forest goods and services.
Forests are crucial for both the environment and human living conditions. They stabilize the soil surface, preventing erosion and play an essential role in managing water resources at local level, influencing climate and air quality. Last but not least is an important resource for the regional economy (wood production, recreation, tourism) and an important cultural and social heritage of human activities on local and regional level. Forests provide habitats for many species of plants and animals with a special role in ensuring biodiversity on  large areas in Europe.

Climate change and change of the societal demands for forest goods and services put additional pressure on forest resource management. Decisions to increase the share of renewable energy to 20% by 2020 are expected to lead to strong growth in demand of biomass for generating the bio-energy. This increased demand will lead to increased competition for resources between forest industry, energy sector and nature conservation as a whole with protective functions and services (including biodiversity, protection for natural damages, landscape aesthetics, recreation and tourism).

In this context, the project will provide information on the vulnerability of forest ecosystems to changes in temperature and rainfall regime, especially on the different opportunities for change in forest management to minimize the effect of climate change. The MOTIVE project will therefore provide to the forest managers useful information on forest management options face to climate change.
One of the most important results of the  MOTIVE project will  be a  set of instruments for a forest management adapted to global changes as a forest management guide. The toolkit consists of updated methods of planning and decision making in forest management and it is subject to discussion and improvement of direct consultation of the interested factors (forest managers, forestry professionals from state governments or private).
The research in the project is organized into six work packages (WG), supplemented with a work package focused on management (WG1):

• WG 2: Basic trends and possible future EU guidelines;
• WG 3: Development of improved forest management models;
• WG 4: Testing and evaluation of management options and risks;
• WG 5: Evaluation and selection of the best adapted forest management strategies;
• WG 6: Improve decision support;
• WG7: Interactions between stakeholders and decision makers, dissemination of results.

Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava participate as partner no. 11 in the project.
The main role of USV is to contribute to three of the seven working groups.

First, USV contributes by analyzing social, political and economic drivers of change. Drivers of change analysis is structured in two phases, an analysis of the documents of European policies influencing forest management, and the analysis of national policies affecting the management of forest resources in the case studies.

Secondly, USV contributes effectively to developping the models by conducting field investigation in the regional case studies in accordance with the protocol for collecting and reporting data agreed with external partners. In the two forest districts studied, the data are collected from the forest management plans, field measurements are done, and discussions are hold with forest managers to identify management features and forest vulnerability. The team applies LANDCLIM model, aiming to highlight two particular situations for Romania case study, namely the effect of ownership change on forest management, and potential effect of wind and pest hasards occurrence under climate change.

Thirdly, USV has the task of maintaining contact with local stakeholders and to ensure dissemination of data about the MOTIVE project and about its results (WG 7).