EUSTAFOR POSITION PAPER ON THE EU FOREST STRATEGY POST-2020

This paper presents the views of the European State Forest Association (EUSTAFOR) on the EU Forest Strategy post-2020 (EU FS post-2020).

Over the last years, the EU and international forest policy frameworks have strongly evolved. The crucial role of forests and the forest-based sector is recognized by the EU Green Deal, the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, the climate mitigation goals of the Paris Agreement, as well as other international commitments and initiatives. EUSTAFOR strongly believes the future Strategy should serve as a tool to reconcile other forest-related policies so that the demands placed on forests by policymakers neither diminish their multifunctional character nor allow one objective to dominate all others.

Ten policy messages are proposed as the input from SFMOs to the ongoing debate on the key objectives of the EU FS post-2020.