EUSTAFOR views presented at opening of National Conference “Forests and Landscape” organized by EUSTAFOR’s members ANARF and FORESTAS

The National Conference “Forests and Landscape” was held in Sardinia on 20-22 April 2017. EUSTAFOR’s intervention highlighted that, despite the importance of of organizations on a local scale, the national level is the key factor for the future of forestry management. At the same time, it is essential to emphasize the need for effective coordination between the national policy level and its interactions with pan-European and international levels.

The exchange of field experiences and knowledge of what is happening in the diverse forestry systems throughout Europe is, for EUSTAFOR, fundamental information that allows our association to bring the voice of the forestry sector to the European level, raising awareness of the individual political processes so that these can benefit sustainable forest management from a pan-European perspective.

Furthermore, understanding synergies between landscape conservation and active forest management, and how these two elements reinforce each other, is a fundamental condition for the development of the sector not only in Italy but also in many other Mediterranean and European countries, despite the diversity in terms of typology, management and forestry industry.

In a changing socio-economic and demographic context, developing strategies in the forestry sector at national and European levels requires coordinating institutional initiatives that will ensure the maintenance of both the functional and aesthetic values of the woodland heritage. Furthermore, a stronger commitment to simplification and harmonization during this phase of reorganizing EU legislation relevant to the forestry and landscape sectors is needed.

The “Forests and Landscape” conference was meant to provide a moment for analysis and debate between institutions with different technical and cultural backgrounds on this particular aspect of the forestry sector. Salvatore Martire, from the Executive Office, provided an overview of forest-related activities, current policy issues on the EU agenda, and EUSTAFOR’s past participation in the FP7 INTEGRAL project , which was very relevant for the conference’s main topic.