Precilience: Precision climate resilience for agriculture and forestry sectors in the European boreal regions

Precilience is a team effort, bringing together experts from 16 organisations across the Nordic-Baltic regions of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Norway and Sweden, as well as Germany. Motivated by the project’s common goal – to develop climate resilience in agriculture and forestry – Precilience contributors will work in teams to deliver the different packages of work that make up the project. 

 Read more about our areas of work:

• Risks & opportunities

  Locally identified multi-risks and opportunities for agriculture and forestry 

  The Risks and Opportunities team is laying the groundwork for the Precilience project by identifying climate risks and vulnerabilities in the Nordic-Baltic Boreal region with the involvement of local actors. The team will conduct target interviews and workshops to collect experiential data on risk factors and opportunities, as well as identifying the potential future impacts of change in the region (to both biophysical and socio-economic landscapes).  

  As part of this work, regional climate data will be compiled and analysed, risk indices for evaluating crop and forest production will be developed, and various tools and frameworks will be co-created to assess and communicate climate risks, all of which will inform the design of resilient adaptation strategies. Data and methods will be shared with regional actors and authorities to achieve more informed decision-making for climate resilience. 

• Adaptation strategies

  Co-design of adaptation strategies 

  The adaptation strategy team will build on the work of the risks and opportunities team, working closely with local actors to co-develop adaptation plans that address current and future climate risks. Adaptation strategies proposed for both forestry and agriculture will be developed through stakeholder workshops and discussions and then evaluated through simulation modelling where the most vulnerable landscapes will be selected as test sites. Evaluation and modelling will provide opportunities to refine and adjust adaptation strategies to ensure that proposed methods are optimally suited to the local environment and those impacted, as well as being assessed for cost-effectiveness, efficiency and risk. 

• Testing & demonstration: agricultural adaptation

  Test & demonstrate transformative solutions in agriculture 

  Precilience’s agricultural demonstration team will test both nature-based and engineered solutions in crop, water, and soil management to minimise the climate change-induced impacts of drought, flooding, disease and other extreme events. 

  Aiming to strengthen crop resilience, enhance soil health and moisture retention, and improve water storage and irrigation, the team will test transformative solutions such as crop diversification and rotation, cover crop usage, land use optimisation, water drainage, storage and infiltration structures, and various soil tillage methods at a number of test farms in the Nordics and Estonia. 

  Solutions will be tailored for regional variation and stakeholders will be engaged throughout. Educational materials including factsheets and videos will be developed to enable functional solutions to be disseminated widely. 

• Testing & demonstration: forestry

  Test & demonstrate transformative solutions in forestry 

  The forestry demonstration team will examine the risks that climate change poses to boreal forests, aiming to upscale the adoption of transformative solutions that will allow forests and foresters to adapt to changing conditions armed with the best information 

  Research will examine which forest types are most vulnerable or resilient to climate-related damage and how forest structure, management history, and surrounding landscapes can increase or decrease vulnerability. Demonstrations across Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Estonia will explore forest regeneration on sensitive sites, looking especially at diversification as a means of increasing forest health. The team will also assess the benefits and risks of various forest management methods and conduct field trials of specific species (Scots Pine, Norway Spruce) and their disease susceptibility. 

• Stakeholder engagement

  Coordination of regional collaboration and commercialisation of Precilience solutions 

  Designing and implementing solutions for boreal agriculture and forestry must include the farmers, landowners, foresters, and local populations whose lives are so deeply connected to – and dependent on – the health of their trees, their crops, their soil, their land. The stakeholder engagement team will ensure that these regional actors and stakeholders have a voice at every stage of the Precilience project. 

  Engaging stakeholders in different locations in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Norway and Sweden requires a tailored approach that will be established via a stakeholder taskforce.  The team will also focus on scaling solutions, identifying obstacles to their adoption, and ensuring that key stakeholders have access to resources and knowledge, sustaining impact beyond the project’s lifecycle.