Objective and hypothesis
Sustainably managed forests have a potential for carbon sequestration and storage while integrating biodiversity, nutrient retention and recreation. Establishing new forests with increased attention to multifunctional services enhances their future value while still curbing climate change. The overall aim of INNO4EST is to provide and demonstrate sustainable afforestation and provide transparent and reliable methods for documentation of effects for the 4 ecosystem services in new and existing forests.

Approach
The INNO4EST project will be organised in three work packages.

• WP 1 will address the 4 ecosystem services and provide the scientific foundation for species selection, impact assessment and selection of indicators. The tasks will in addition to literature reviews draw upon data from afforestation in Denmark.
• WP 2 will have focus on the establishment of new forests while implementing the documentation methods and developing the reporting tools.
• WP 3 will be a dissemination of the projects results and increase the impact of the project through workshops and publications. All stakeholders are invited to participate and contribute to the development of the end products: scientific/technical results, new forests, the input data, expected outcome and more.

Expected impact/output
The project will in general increase the transparency and hence the willingness to invest in afforestation, for companies and individuals. Landowners and investors, private as well as public, will benefit from the knowledge for decisions on afforestation and from the needed documentation methods for the outcome. Knowledge can further be compiled for improve decision support system, given more funding for this development.