The main goal of ALTERFOR is to provide improved and new approaches in forest management that are robust enough to address the challenges of the 21^st century. These challenges range from uncertainties of climate change and the complex dynamics of evolving global markets to the pressures for increased use of bioenergy.

To achieve this, ALTERFOR researchers will:

• examine alternative forest management models (FMMs) that are robust in their capacity to deliver ecosystem services and reduce socio-ecological risks
• assess the impact of different FMMs in terms of resultant combinations of ecosystem services  on the European and landscape level
• facilitate the implementation of desired FMMs in different case study areas in Europe and thereby improve cross-national knowledge transfer regarding their benefits, costs, management, and utilization