07 Jul 2026

Project

Improving the contribution of the forestry sector to the fight against climate change

The ECO2FOR project responds to the urgent need to strengthen the fight against climate change by developing forestry projects that attract private investment and promote economic activity in rural areas, thereby helping to combat depopulation. It focuses on the implementation of new forest carbon projects, improving forests through management practices and developing tools to optimize the processes of implementation, registration and monitoring. This involves integrating the multifunctionality of ecosystem services, enhancing biodiversity and adapting to climate change.

Challenges

Attracting private investment to the forestry sector, contributing to the development of economic activity in rural areas, and fighting against depopulation.

Beneficiaries

Local communities
The public forestry sector
Forestry technicians

Objectives

The main objective of the Eco2for project is to develop and implement a set of advanced tools and methodologies to optimize forests’ capacity to act as carbon sinks while complying with European and national regulations. The project will:

Create and validate Improved Forest Management (IFM) methodologies to maximize carbon sequestration and promote ecosystem multifunctionality.
Develop a digital platform to facilitate the monitoring and verification of carbon credits and promote transparency in payment for ecosystem services markets.
Test and validate these methodologies through pilot projects to demonstrate their effectiveness and replicability across different regions of Spain.

Preferred by Nature is responsible for developing three IFM methodologies, framed in Action A1 Design and Development of new methodologies for improved forest management: productivity improvement (R1.1), extension of rotation (R1.2) and logged-to-protected forests (R1.3).

Preferred by Nature will also develop guidelines for the validation and verification of IFM projects (R2.4) under Action A2, the development of new, improved forest management calculation tools.