Council Conclusions on new EU Forest Strategy for 2030

On 15 November 2021, the EU Agriculture Ministers adopted the Conclusions on the new EU Forest Strategy for 2030 during the Agriculture and Fisheries Meeting.

In the Conclusions, the Council “regrets that the new EU Forest Strategy was not developed together with the Member States and stakeholders.” They emphasize the key role of forest owners and forest managers in delivering on the Strategy’s objectives and encourage full involvement of the relevant stakeholders, including forest owners and managers, in the consultations preparing the implementation and in the Strategy implementation itself.

In addition, among others, the Council:

• Highlights the need to strengthen the socio-economic goals and to define the newly introduced concepts and terms in the EU Forest Strategy and to set clear steps for future cooperation between the Commission and the Member States;
• Invites the Commission, together with Member States, to explore options for new innovative market based solutions (…) while limiting the administrative burden for forest owners and managers, as well as for public administrations
• Recalls that data collection, processing, reporting and interpretation should make the best and most effective use of existing national forest inventories and related international cooperation;
• Emphasizes the importance of clarifying the need for new EU “closer-to-nature” certification schemes and their demonstrable added value, underlining that this may cause additional administrative burden and costs, potential confusion to consumers and overlaps with existing forest certifications schemes.

EUSTAFOR and other forest-based sector organizations expressed their support to the Council Conclusions in a Joint Press Release.