European Union Forest Strategy for 2030

One of the flagship actions planned for under the European Green Deal was the development of a third EU Forest Strategy for which the Commission prepared a proposal in 2021 (EC, 2019). As part of this process, the European Parliament (EP) adopted a resolution on the third EU Forest Strategy (Parliament Resolution, 2020) and the Council of Europe published a conclusion on perspectives for the EU forest-relevant policies and EU forest strategy post-2020 (Council Conclusion, 2020). These documents, coupled with a public consultation by the Commission (EC, 2021b), had the objective to develop a more coherent Strategy on forests. It was also part of a policy discussion set against the new EU Biodiversity Strategy (EC, 2020a), an EU taxonomy for sustainable activities (Regulation, 2020/852), the 2050 Climate Change Mitigation Strategy (EC, 2018) and the recently adopted Adaptation Strategy (EC, 2021d) and Circular Economy Action Plan (EC, 2020b). All of these initiatives have been pushed as components of the European Green Deal, which, in turn, have influenced the new EU Forest Strategy (EC, 2021e, EC, 2021a):

The New Forest Strategy

The third EU Forest Strategy has been designed to protect and restore EU forests. The EC has characterised the objective of the third Strategy as “a vision and concrete actions to improve the quantity and quality of EU forests and strengthen their protection, restoration and resilience. It aims to adapt Europe’s forests to the new conditions, weather extremes and high uncertainty brought about by climate change” (Forest Strategy Website).1  It is further argued that the third Strategy aims to support the socio-economic functions of forests for rural areas and that it will boost the forest-based bioeconomy (EC, 2021e, EC, 2021a, EC, 2021c, EC, 2021b). This will be achieved through:
•	forest restoration and reinforced SFM for climate adaptation and forest resilience;
•	sustainable use of wood-based resources for bioenergy;
•	re- and afforestation of biodiverse forests;
•	protecting primary and old-growth forests;
•	skill development and empowering people for a sustainable forest bioeconomy;
•	financial incentives for forest owners and managers;
•	sustainable forest bioeconomy for long-lived wood products;
•	supporting a non-wood forest-based bioeconomy.

The third Strategy will also focus on developing an EU integrated forest monitoring framework; implementing and enforcing the Community acquis; development of a more coherent EU forest governance framework; and improving the research and innovation agenda on forests.

In parallel, it can be noted that a roadmap accompanies the third Strategy for planting three billion trees across Europe by 2030 (EC, 2021a, EC, 2021c). This measure, which is driven mainly by the new Biodiversity Strategy (EC, 2020a), will have to follow clearly defined ecological standards to meet the guiding principle of "plant and grow the right tree in the right place, for the right purpose" (p. 3, EC, 2021c).

While more expansive than its predecessors (EC, 1998, 2013), the emphasis of the third Strategy remains the same, essentially focusing on climate and biodiversity-friendly forest management. The third EU Forest Strategy puts forward a range of upcoming actions, such as a future proposal on new EU SFM indicators, thresholds, and ranges; an EU voluntary closer-to-nature forest management certification scheme; the further development of payment for ecosystem services; and a proposal on EU Forest Observation, reporting and data collection. It also clearly recognises the critical role forest owners have in implementing all the outlined actions, such as through educational programmes. These are all commendable developments. However, aside from emphasising the role of wood in the construction and building sector (see p. 5), the third Strategy does not address the importance of the economy of forestry and wood. For instance, the Strategy primarily considers the substitution benefits from using wood products, not the other wide range of wood-producing functions of forests. The lack of other policy domains in the Strategy is evident, focusing mainly on the environment and climate while neglecting other domains highlighted by the European Green Deal (the EU’s social and growth objectives) and that have an impact on forests and the forest-based industries.

It can also be noted that the Strategy recognises some of the past problems facing the forest-based sector, such as the limited funds made available to forests through earlier rural development funds (e.g., see p. 17). This can also be seen as a good development. Nevertheless, one of the Strategy’s main objectives remains as re- and afforestation (see p. 15), even accompanied by a roadmap (EC, 2021a, EC, 2021c). The emphasis on re- and afforestation would suggest that the primary tool employed by the Members States will remain afforestation, as other types of forestry measures have not been taken up extensively in other programming periods (Alliance Environnement et al., 2018), despite past and active efforts by the Commission.

Regarding forest governance in general and the coherence between relevant EU policies affecting forestry, another exciting development is the proposal that the Standing Forestry Committee and the Working Group on Forest and Nature be integrated to become “a single expert group” (p. 23). This recognises that the forest governance structure needs to be revised at the EU level; however, the proposed changes raise two significant concerns. First, the proposed merger mainly concerns the environment and does not address the absence of other sectors in this equation. Overall, this is a problem for the new Strategy and reflects earlier criticism (Aggestam and Giurca, 2021, Aggestam and Pülzl, 2018, 2020). The second, and perhaps most relevant, is that no proposals are put forward to improve governance and communication between different Commission services. Instead, the proposed changes mainly focus on improving communication between the Member States and relevant ministries (primarily those in charge of the environment and forests). The forest-based sector would have expected solutions for smart policy coordination at the EU level to help set balanced, not conflicting, objectives in forest-related policies. Unfortunately, the new Strategy misses this opportunity. As a result, it is unlikely that the third Strategy will allow for coherence between the many EU forest-related policies in place (e.g., the EU industrial strategy and the EU’s social and growth objectives).

¹. See https://ec.europa.eu/environment/strategy/forest-strategy_en.

References
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