05/10/2021
European forest owners and managers were among the most active and supportive of a new EU Forest Strategy under the European Green Deal. Indeed, we were deeply convinced that the strategy was needed to support the role of forests’ multiple functions, to better address the challenges and opportunities of the sector and to achieve new Green Deal objectives through a consistent and well-coordinated framework at EU level. With the final version of the strategy published in July these hopes have been dashed. This paper aims to explain the main reasons why European forest owners and managers are highly worried about the strategy and deem it inadequate. This paper also aims to raise some initial questions and remarks with regards to the implementation of this Strategy.
06/07/2021
The current proposed revision of the REDII sustainability criteria comes at a time when the transposition of the 2018 recast Directive has yet to be completed by most Member States. Delays in the adoption of the Operational Guidance for forest biomass and other secondary legislation, leave the sector increasingly concerned about the utter lack of clarity surrounding the regulatory environment on the EU’s most important source of renewable energy.
24/06/2021
While the future EU Forest Strategy post-2020 is expected to be published on 20 July, the EU forest and forest-based sector has very deep concerns about the draft which is currently in inter-service consultation within the European Commission. The views expressed by the sector over the last months have, unfortunately, not been taken into consideration in the draft. In addition, the calls from the European Parliament and Council regarding the new Strategy appear to have been overlooked.
28/01/2021
Over the last years, the EU and international forest policy frameworks have strongly evolved and the crucial role of forests and the forest-based sector is widely recognized by the EU Green Deal, among others. 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.
28/09/2020
Ahead of the European Parliament’s vote on the report “The European Forest Strategy – The way forward” planned for next week, the EU forest and forest-based sector would like to share three reasons why the report voted in the AGRI committee should be supported. In our opinion, the report provides the upcoming EU Forest Strategy with all the essential ingredients to allow forests and the forest-based sector to play their central roles in achieving the objectives of the European Green Deal, including climate neutrality by 2050.
25/09/2020
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has made the climate neutrality objective by 2050 one of the top political priorities within the EU Green Deal. As announced in the recently published 2030 Climate Target Plan, a balanced, realistic, and prudent pathway to climate neutrality by 2050 requires an emissions reduction target of 55% by 2030. However, what exactly this will bring in the future and how this will be accomplished still remains very unclear.
19/05/2020
This position paper analyzes the potential consequences of the announced Biodiversity Strategy to 2030 on forest management, in particular in European state forests. 5 policy recommendations are highlighted by the European state forests to make the Strategy's targets for 2030 balanced, realistic and feasible.
15/05/2020
For the sustainable development and resilience of EU forests, including biodiversity conservation, the following issues raised by the European forest and the forest-based sectors need to be considered in the upcoming EU Biodiversity Strategy: (1) SFM is the ABC of biodiversity conservation in forests; (2) Are more restrictions the best way to preserve forests?; and (3) The future EU Forest Strategy should pave the way.
05/05/2020
The outbreak and spread of COVID-19 is having a significant impact on forests and forestry in a growing number of European regions. In the context of the ongoing discussion on the EU recovery plan, and on the EU Green Deal, the forest owners and managers has jointly shared their concerns about the current situation to the representatives of the Croation Presidency of the EU, the European Commission and the European Parliament. In this letter, the reasons why the forestry sector should be part of the EU recovery plan were clearly addressed.
| 28/09/2020 | Joint statement: The New EU Forest Strategy: 3 reasons to endorse the committee report |
| 25/09/2020 | 2030 EU Climate Target Plan must better recognize the role of forests in climate change mitigation and adaptation |
| 19/05/2020 | EU Biodiversity Targets for 2030 must be balanced, realistic and feasible – 5 policy recommendations from EU state forests |
| 15/05/2020 | Joint statement: The EU sector’s role in ensuring Sustainable Forest Management and conserving biodiversity |
| 05/05/2020 | Joint letter: The European forestry sector must be part of the future EU COVID-19 recovery plan |
