Nordic Forestry - Centre of Advanced Research – Environmental services" (Nordicforestry-CARES) is a virtual centre that will work to strengthen forestry research and development (R&D) in the Nordic and Baltic countries. We focus on the impacts of forest management on environmental services – water protection, carbon sequestration and biodiversity.

Most European nations including all the Nordic countries have signed "The Helsinki Agreement". A number of principles regarding sustainable forest management (SFM) are outlined in the agreement. Maintenance and enhancement of environmental services are important components of SFM that need to be balanced with other social and economic objectives. To achieve this, new operational knowledge on environmental services is required.

We aim to integrate across the topics water, carbon and biodiversity:

• To strengthen the knowledge base for optimising environmental services in SFM.
• To quantify the environmental impact of different management strategies and practices in operational ways which can support decision-making.
• To improve the knowledge and visibility of the environmental services provided by forests in the public as well as among forest owners and managers.

We meet regularly every half a year to explore the above topics, discuss new ideas and results.

Nordic Forestry CAR-ES is financed by the Nordic Ministers through SNS.