Climate change’s negative effects, such as rising global temperatures and the disruption of global ecological ecosystems as a direct effect of rising carbon emissions in the atmosphere, are a significant concern for human health, communities, and ecosystems. The condition and presence of forest ecosystems, especially those in peri-urban areas, play an essential role in mitigating the negative effects of climate change on society. They provide direct benefits to the residents of large cities and their surrounding areas, and they must be managed sustainably to protect all their component ecosystems. This research was carried out in the forests of Lunca Muresului Natural Park and Bazos Arboretum, located in the Romanian sector of the Pannonian Plain, near urban agglomerations. The results showed high variability in the stands. Using the height-to-diameter ratio indicator concerning dbh and species, a strong Pearson correlation was registered (between 0.45 and 0.82). These values indicate the high stability of these stands, providing positive human–nature interactions such as recreational or outdoor activities (and a complementary yet indirect use value through attractive landscape views). Protecting these ecosystems offers a so-called insurance policy for the next generations from a climate change standpoint.

With the intensification of the effects of climate change, the urgent need to address their drivers, especially greenhouse gas emissions, has become essential. In this context, forests offer a robust solution, with their potential to store and mitigate carbon emissions. However, striking a balance is critical given the significant economic contribution of the forestry and wood-based industries, which account for about 5% of Romania’s GDP and employ 6% (around 300 thousand) of its active workforce. This study, conducted in the Piatra Craiului National Park located in Romania’s Southern Carpathians, we utilize the EFISCEN application to generate three distinct 50-year forest evolution scenarios based on harvest intensity, namely Business As Usual (BAU), Maximum Intensity (MAX), and No Harvest (MIN), on two historical different managed forests, i.e., conservation and production. The study aims to guide forest owners in decision making with scenario modeling tools, with the objectives of assessing the forest carbon sequestration potential and evaluating the economic feasibility. In the most probable scenario, the BAU scenario, the growing stock increases from 2.6 million m³ to 3.8 million m³ over 50 years, with a more than 40% increase. Comparing the carbon stock change for all tree harvest scenario types indicates that the MIN scenario has the highest carbon sink capacity in the next 50 years; the BAU scenario is a well-balanced option between carbon sink and wood provision and has an optimal EUR 3.7 million in annual revenue. The MAX scenario can boost the growth and increase the annual revenue from wood by 35% but is effective only for a short time and thus has the smallest calculated revenue in time. Achieving a win–win relationship between carbon sequestration and wood supply is imperative, as well as good planning and scenarios to contribute to climate mitigation and also as provisions for local communities and to sustain the local economy.

Climate change is transforming European forests through increasingly frequent and intense droughts, storms, pest outbreaks, wildfires, and hydro-meteorological extremes. These biophysical pressures interact with socio-economic conditions and governance arrangements in complex and context-specific ways, shaping both vulnerability and adaptive capacity. Addressing such challenges requires climate-smart forestry supported by decision-support tools and climate services that are co-produced with forest managers, public authorities, and local communities.This study introduces an Adaptive Participatory Engagement Framework (APEF) that integrates Participatory Action Research (PAR), a structured four-stage co-creation process (co-design, co-production, co-dissemination, and co-evaluation), and governance-aware validation of socio-economic indicators across Europe. The framework was implemented in eight Case Study Areas (CSAs), selected to encompass the fourteen European Forest Types (EFTs). Drawing on multi-stage stakeholder workshops, semi-structured interviews, and iterative qualitative analysis, the study explores stakeholders’ main themes of discussions regarding climate-related forest risks, identifies socio-economic and governance constraints on adaptation, and translates these insights into necessary prerequisites for supporting the development of a Decision Support System (DSS) as a climate service and tailored management practices.Results show that economic uncertainty is a pervasive concern across all CSAs and is strongly linked to workforce shortages and institutional fragmentation, which together limit the feasibility of adaptive silvicultural practices under climate stress. By triangulating bottom-up stakeholders’ evidence with top-down policy frameworks and governance feasibility assessments, the study delivers a validated set of socio-economic indicators and a composite Socio-Economic Index (SE-Index) suitable for DSS integration. Overall, the findings demonstrate that meaningful and scalable participatory engagement is achievable across diverse governance contexts and provide an empirically grounded pathway for the co-production of climate services and management practices to support adaptive forest management across Europe.Acknowledgements This research received funds from the project “OPTimising FORest management decisions for a low-carbon, climate resilient future in Europe (OptFor-EU)” funded by the European Union Horizon Europe programme, under Grant agreement no101060554.

The forest-climate nexus highlights the challenges and the opportunities for change within communities resulting from the multifaceted relationships that arise over time and in specific geographic contexts. The relationships between society, forest and climate are essential for transformation, leveraging the understanding of ecological and physical processes which are strongly correlated to forest management and governance. In forestry, global discussions have polarized the discourse on climate change mitigation and adaptation. However, societal needs emerging from conflicts at the forefront of forest-climate nexus have shown the crucial role of human and local dimensions which is not surprisingly, mediated by international framing of events. To shed the light on the importance of collaboration, science-practice interactions contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation, often through knowledge transfer under the form of dialogue, engaging communities in contributing to a better knowledge base for practical decision-making. Developing forest management policies as well as forest-wood chain towards sustainability requires a high level of cooperation between stakeholders including forest owners, wood industries, public authority and local communities as recipients of a diversity of forest services. This study provides insights on forest practitioners and their forest management plans across Europe in relation to climate change. It facilitates knowledge transfer among different types of actors across different European forest ecosystems and their species composition but also provides an overview of the stakeholder’s knowledge regarding climate change impacts, the adaptation measures they have implemented, and the challenges they face in mitigating climate change. The methodological approach is based on empirical social science research methods with an emphasis on a bottom-up approach which was carried out through 56 semi-structured face-to-face interviews performed in 8 case study areas (CSA) in Europe (Italy, Spain, Romania, Austria, Germany, UK, Lithuania, Norway) with relevant stakeholders. This was complemented by primary and secondary document analysis of forest management practices, selected upon criteria including ecosystem services. Under the forest-climate nexus, stakeholders from all CSAs have reported an increase in climatic parameters such as extreme weather events like strong wind-storms and wind throws. This was complemented by the perceived climate change impact on forests, especially the expansion of the growing season and increased pest activity. This is the case of more bark beetle flights which have been the most seen impact on forests with a negative sentiment of on-going increment of the warming trend, but also regarding the demand for firewood due to warmer winters. Adaptation measures have prioritized natural regeneration and maintaining continuous forest cover while avoiding gaps. However, challenges and barriers in implementation hinders transition to more adapted species and lower production cycles, increasing the uncertainty of climate change related impacts. The analysis suggests a need for more flexible and supportive policies, as well as financial incentives, to enable forest managers to effectively adapt to the changing climate and its medium to long term impact, a conclusion which validates that collaboration through knowledge transfer addresses existing on-ground problems and should be used more.

Indicator frameworks support environmental monitoring and policy reporting, but their uptake in forest management remains constrained when indicators are weakly linked to management decisions, data availability, and operational needs. Within the OptFor-EU project a set of 21 Essential Forest Mitigation Indicators (EFMIs) were co-created to support decision making in climate-smart forest management across Europe. Starting from an initial pool of 130 indicators compiled from international frameworks and literature, an expert screening with regard to mitigation relevance, sensitivity to forest management practices, and feasibility helped to reduce the set, followed by a prioritisation through surveys with forest managers and international indicator experts. The final EFMI set extends beyond carbon sequestration to include forest health, climate-change adaptability, biodiversity-supporting structures (e.g. deadwood, stand density, stand age), and regional climate regulation (e.g. soil moisture, temperature, precipitation). Each indicator is documented in standardised factsheets, aligned with the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services and international indicator systems. An open-source and harmonised data backbone integrates pan-European datasets, satellite products, process-based forest models, and regional climate models to each EFMI; all processing code is publicly available. A network analysis shows a system of interconnected EFMIs with carbon stored, wood removals, and stand density acting as central leverage points linking production, biodiversity, damages, and climate-regulation pathways. The EFMIs are operationalised for decision makers in the OptFor-EU Decision Support System to enable indicator selection, weighting, and trade-off analysis across management alternatives and scales, strengthening evidence-based planning and interoperability with ecosystem service assessments and policy reporting.