EUSTAFOR position paper: Preserving forests, jobs, and local economy: EUSTAFOR’s call for balanced and sound land protection approaches

18/03/2025
To fulfil the targets on land protection set by recent EU climate and nature legislation, state-owned forests are often considered to be the most obvious solution. European State Forest Management organizations (SFMOs), now and in the past, have proven to follow the highest sustainability standards in forest management, including the preservation of valuable habitats and species. Out of 55.5 million hectares of state forests managed by EUSTAFOR members, more than 17 million hectares are protected by national nature conservation laws, almost 11 million hectares are serving as protective forests, and another 11 million hectares have been designated as Natura 2000 sites. However, additional setting aside of public forests only to meet the ambitious land conservation targets cannot be the approach nor can reaching these targets be the primary role of state forests. 

EUSTAFOR position paper: Policy makers urged to respect subsidiarity principle and build on existing forest monitoring systems

27/03/2024
EUSTAFOR, as a stakeholder which represents 39 State Forest Management Organizations (SFMOs) across 27 European countries, continuously supports sustainable and multi-purpose management approaches in daily forest operations and promotes research and innovation in the sector.