The entire consortium of the PathFinder project met in Brussels in October 2024 for our third in-person project meeting. It was a great opportunity for the partners to share their updates and co-create a collective pathway forward to achieving the project objectives.

We decided to seize this opportunity to make an after-movie and interview the project leaders to present the status of their work and what to look forward to in the future.
We also isolated every interview of the 5 individual work package leaders:
Hear from our coordinator, Johannes Breidenbach, from the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO), on the issue that the PathFinder project tackles, our current updates, and what to expect in the coming months!
Data Collection: A core part of PathFinder’s project is advanced field data collection (WP1), led by Iciar Alberdi from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). Hear from Iciar about the challenges that WP1 is addressing, how it connects to the rest of the project, and what to expect in the near future.
Mapping and Estimates: One of PathFinder’s key objectives is to develop and demonstrate a platform to create high-resolution maps and precise estimates for efficient monitoring of forest attributes including carbon stocks and biodiversity (WP2). These efforts are led by Mari Myllymäki from the Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE). Hear from Mari about the challenges that WP2 is addressing, how it connects to the rest of the project, and what to expect in the near future.
Future Forest Scenario: One of PathFinder’s key objectives is to develop a future forest scenario framework in order to analyse the impact of policy decisions and resulting management actions on future forest climate mitigation potential, biodiversity, and other ecosystem services (WP3) These efforts are led by Thales West from the Free University of Amsterdam (VU). Hear from Thales about the challenges that WP3 is addressing, how it connects to the rest of the project, and what to expect in the near future.
Policy Pathways: Finally, a core aspect of the PathFinder project’s activities is co-designing policies that lead to desired forest management pathways and offering ways to integrate scientific knowledge into policy and practice (WP4). This will be done alongside core stakeholders and target audiences involved in wider forest management across Europe. These efforts are led by Daniel Di Marzo from the University of Freiburg (ALU-FR). Hear from Daniel about the challenges that WP4 is addressing, how it connects to the rest of the project, and what to expect in the near future.
The videos were filmed and edited by Cem Pictures.
The following meeting is scheduled for October 2025, in Madrid, Spain, hosted by WP1 lead CSIC-INIA. Make sure to follow us on YouTube and on our social media accounts via our links here as well as read our new Policy Brief on a governance structure for a European forest monitoring system in our resources section!