Europe’s forests are at a crossroads. For long, forests have been valued for their production of timber. Now they are increasingly being recognized for the broader ecosystem services they provide. These include, among others, carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation, recreation, and cultural heritage. However, the way forests are managed today often fails to reflect this shift in societal expectations, and the risk is that European forests underutilize their potential in delivering these ecosystem services. At the same time, climate change, biodiversity loss, and evolving public demands are placing unprecedented pressure on forest systems, which accentuates the critical gap between what forests are currently delivering and what society needs them to provide.
This is the starting point for the INTERCEDE project. It emerges from a growing recognition within European policy, particularly the EU Forest Strategy for 2030, that new tools are needed to realign forest management with public interest. These tools are known as Market-Based Instruments (MBIs), such as Payments for Environmental Services (PES). They have the potential to incentivize forest owners to manage their land in ways that support climate mitigation, biodiversity, and social well-being. However, despite their promise, MBIs remain underdeveloped and unevenly applied across Europe. There is a lack of coherent frameworks, robust evidence, and practical guidance to support their effective design and implementation.
INTERCEDE sets out to address this gap. It brings together researchers, policymakers, forest owners, and civil society actors to co-create solutions that are both scientifically sound and socially legitimate. The project will map existing MBIs, assess the supply and demand for forest ecosystem services under future climate and socio-economic scenarios, and develop a decision-support tools to guide policy and practice. Through a series of pilot cases and transdisciplinary stakeholder forums, INTERCEDE will test and refine new PES schemes, ensuring they are tailored to local contexts and capable of delivering real impact.
The expected outcomes of INTERCEDE are based on thorough analysis of the existing landscape of MBI and assessment of how they work. By improving the design and uptake of MBIs, the project aims to enhance the contribution of forests to EU climate goals and will support the EU’s biodiversity targets by making conservation more cost-effective and socially supported. It will also strengthen the economic resilience of forest owners, by diversifying income streams and promoting sustainable business models.
Intercede builds on a transdisciplinary framework where political science and governance studies inform the analysis of institutional frameworks and stakeholder dynamics, natural science models supply and underpin empirical evaluations, and economics guides the valuation of ecosystem services and the design of incentive mechanisms. Finally, sociology and participatory theory shape the project’s engagement strategies.
