EUSTAFOR joins the final HoliSoils annual meeting 2025 in Marseille

Now in its fourth year, HoliSoils continues to make significant insights in understanding soil and forest management strategies. At this year’s annual (and final) meeting in Marseille, the project highlighted its extensive work, ranging from biophysical research linked to disturbances and microbiological processes to modelling, data, and monitoring frameworks for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

As part of the project’s stakeholder advisory board, EUSTAFOR joined the meeting with a keen interest in the progress. EUSTAFOR’s Senior Policy Advisor Amila Meškin attended the meeting and raised that project deliverables that have clear timeline and cover specific context are very useful  for those who operate in the field and can ultimately serve as a good indication of what to prioritise in forest management strategies.

In addition, the project’s involvement in policy developments is crucial. Discussions on the LULUCF methodology and its targets will soon be underway, and HoliSoils could serve as a valuable forum to assess whether the current target remains relevant and appropriate. This is especially important as many forests are becoming carbon sources, meaning that several forested Member States (e.g., Estonia, Germany) will face the challenge of paying fines.  EUSTAFOR also offered to project researchers the opportunity to present relevant deliverables in this context within the newly established internal EUSTAFOR  Working Group on Carbon Accounting.

Ideally, there should be a greater focus on the bigger picture, connecting all the different deliverables into an overarching ‘land-use strategy for forest (soils) management’. It would be valuable to have an overview of the win-win activities needed, with a long-term vision that not only aims at setting the targets but also critically analyses their relevance.

Following the meeting and the presentations, three key takeaways can be highlighted:

• Forest soils are often overlooked in policy and management discussions on carbon, biodiversity, and sustainable forest management practices. Their role requires more consistent consideration.
• Aboveground and belowground dynamics are deeply connected. Forest management decisions directly affect soils — and vice versa. Integrated thinking is key.
• Modelling is improving. We’re seeing significant progress in forest soil models, increasing their reliability and usefulness for decision-makers and practitioners. Strengthening soil inventories could be a critical step to build trust and inform smarter management.

Participants of the meeting also had an opportunity to visit two interesting field excursions, the first focusing on the impact of forest management on Quercus pubescens forest functioning, the second dedicated to the impact of climate change on Q. pubescens forest.

Many thanks for the interesting discussions and kind invitation by Natural Resources Institute Finland / Luonnonvarakeskus and European Forest Institute.