Learning for sustainable forest management: Europe’s East and West as a landscape laboratory

• Sustainable forest management aims at satisfying ecological, economic and sociocultural values in entire landscapes. • The study of the gradient from the Russian Federation via countries in transition such as the new EU members and Ukraine, and to Fennoscandia, provides interesting knowledge. • We develop tools to measure the different dimensions of sustainability. • We compare concepts aiming at sustainable landscapes, such as Model Forest and Biosphere Reserve, with regular approaches for land management. • Natural and human science methods are combined, in close collaboration between researchers, policy-makers, planners and managers. • Transparent communication of results to the public through different media is crucial.