After the successful collaboration between the Future Forest Initiative (FFI) and the European Landowner’s Organization (ELO) in 2023, the 25th of March 2024 marked our first co-organized conference about "Key solutions for environmental sustainability”. Paving the way towards a more sustainable future, this year’s conference in Brussels focused mainly on three key topics: Innovative uses of forest biomass, the monitoring of biodiversity and the preservation of soil health.
Panel 1: The first panel examined new ways to use forest biomass. Discussing issues such as the establishment of an alignment between economic and environmental interests, the speakers came up with diverse approaches, giving an insight on how different countries in Europe try to find a sustainable “sweet spot” by looking into different fields. Consequently, Elina Kalela appealed to “open our eyes to other directions when we want to fight climate change and try to find synergies”.
Panel 2: Besides the management of forests, the valuation of their ecosystem services was of interest in the second panel. By discussing new ways to monitor biodiversity, the speakers did not only picture the versatility of possible parameters for its measurement, but also presented how the selection of accurate indicators offers an opportunity for new business models. Considering the latest greenwashing scandals revolving around carbon offsetting, the speakers underscored biodiversity’s superiority to really tackle the value of ecosystems and its chance to regain trust among the markets.
Panel 3: The third panel gave insights into the urgency to tackle land degradation. Specifically, Joséphine de Chazournes referred to the importance of education to foster the awareness of and willingness to combat today’s environmental issues within the younger generations. In this regard, Theresa Luber underlined this statement by asserting that it needs funds to strengthen current ecosystem services, since costs rise the later action is taken.
Startup pitches: Subsequently, several startups from the Future Forest Initiative’s accelerator program and network presented potential approaches tackling the identified core issues. They were a good example of how a need for change fosters innovation. First, Skyseed showed how it tackles the current challenges with the help of drone-supported seeding. Afterwards, 44.moles presented its method to accurately measure carbon sequestration and offsetting. Finally, Eco:fibr showed how pineapple production in Costa Rica offers opportunities to establish a more sustainable paper industry in Europe and America.
Closing this year’s conference, the more than 70 attendees, representing diverse organizations from across Europe, gathered for drinks, to enjoy a more personal exchange. The conference was a pre-event to the Forum for the Future of Agriculture (FFA), a leading European gathering focusing on agriculture, food security and environmental health. We as FFI thank the European Landowner’s Organization (ELO) for this opportunity to showcase its goals and startups it supports.
Due to the versatility of the topics and the wide range of expertises covered, several questions from the Q&A sessions could not be considerated. Therefore, we collected some of the hot topics the audience were particularily interested in and obtained the corresponding answers from the speakers concerned.