Protecting EU forests for the future, a different kind of growth strategy

This article is part of our special report LIFE Terra – Europe’s single biggest citizen-driven initiative to plant and monitor 500 million trees to mitigate climate change.

The EU Forest Strategy for 2030, a key component of the European Green Deal, aims to strengthen the protection, restoration, and resilience of forests across the EU. As the strategy nears its halfway mark, LifeTerra together with Euractiv organised a discussion on 24 March to assess its progress and look at the challenges ahead.

Forests play a critical role as carbon sinks, as well as preserving biodiversity, and supporting ecosystems. Enhancing their resilience and diversity is essential for better managing environmental challenges and adapting to climate change; to help achieve this, the EU Forest Strategy 2030 has a goal to plant 500 million trees - it also includes an education initiative for children.

Challenges remain, including resistance to legislation and the need for better forest monitoring. A proposal for a regulation on a monitoring framework for resilient European forests, put forward by the Commission in November 2023, is currently under review by the European Parliament and the Council.

Co-financing

Sven Kallen, the founder of the Life Terra Foundation, Europe’s largest climate action initiative around tree planting explained that the organization, co-financed by the Commission through the Life Programme, is currently planting trees in 30 European countries and together with its partners they have planted 15 million trees.

“Our mission is to enable people to take impactful climate action by facilitating tree planting, educating future generations, and developing tree monitoring technology. We actively support and contribute to the 3 billion tree pledge from the EU, also activating our partners to get engaged in the pledge. We have organised the first European Tree Planting Day initiative as a legacy movement to keep engaging people in climate action,” he said.

While remaining optimistic about the efforts of the strategy, Kallen also emphasized the challenges of land access, permits, and funding.

Thomas Waitz MEP and member of the AGRI Committee in the European Parliament underlined that the Forest Strategy is a declaration of intention, not a directive or regulation.

With legislation supporting the forest strategy is facing resistance, particularly from Scandinavian countries and Austria, Waitz sees this as a challenge.

Economic competences

Although Forestry is not solely a national competence he pointed out: “There’s a court verdict from 2015 from the European Court of Justice that clarifies that forests are a mixed competence. Yes, the pure economic question on running forests is a national competence, but everything that is related to climate or environment is all European competence.”

“And so now we’re trying to actually push through legislation that allows us to surveil, to actually see what is going on in European forests, and to compare this with other countries,” said Waitz.

He emphasizes the importance of forestry in climate action and CO2 sequestration and stresses the need to take advantage of data collection technologies like Copernicus to track forest health.

Other positive developments Waitz highlighted included a new definition of sustainable forest management and the Commission’s work on a closer-to-nature definition.

Kelsey Perlman, Forest and Climate Campaigner with Fern introduced the organization which works with forestry NGOs, academics, and foresters, aiming to achieve the Forest Strategy’s objectives.

She expressed enthusiasm for the aims of the Forest Strategy but noted a loss of momentum, particularly in the Nature Restoration law. Perlman further criticized the secrecy around forest data and the lack of support for diverse forest management practices.

“Today, we find that it’s almost impossible to have a discussion about furthering the information base around our forests. For us that’s quite shocking to see that just a conversation about data suddenly becomes very secretive.”

“But in many other sectors, whether it’s climate, whether it’s agriculture, whether it’s healthcare, we see that sharing of information is the basis upon which you improve innovation, you improve services. We do it for the health of ourselves. Why would we not do it for the health of our forests?”, she asked.

Financial incentives

Perlman also emphasized the importance of protecting primary and old-growth forests and the need for financial incentives to support sustainable practices. “There should be a variety of funds that are around to be able to increase the resilience of our forests,” she remarked.

Juha Jumppanen, Executive Vice President, Wood Supply and Forest Services at Metsä Group also discussed the importance of protecting old-growth forests alongside the need for better recognition of forests as a strategic raw material. He cited Finland’s recent decision to protect all state-owned old-growth forests as a good example.

Metsä Group is a Finnish forest industry company owned by 90,000 Finnish forest owners and promotes regenerative forestry principles such as the efficient use of wood and industrial side streams, producing products that replace fossil-based materials.

Jumppanen said that one size does not fit all: “European forests have great variety due to different vegetation zones and climate, it is important that the strategic goals are adapted to regional conditions.”

“I think the EU's Forest Strategy gives the sector a long-term view on forest related policies. And during the previous mandate, a lot of new legislation affecting forests was introduced, and I think now it's extremely important to allow sufficient time for proper implementation. And I think that the forest should have a holistic approach, so all ecosystem services have to be recognized in it,” he said.

Strategic raw material

Jumppanen added that forests’ role as a valuable, strategic raw material should be recognized better, as forests enhance EUs resiliency and security of supply.

“For Metsä Group, the way forward is our regenerative forestry principles, which we defined in 2023. Our goal is to verifiably strengthen the state of forest nature by 2030. The EU can support the transition towards regenerative forestry. Regenerative forestry means strengthening the value of natural capital together with the economic value generated by forests,” said Jumppanen.

The panelists broadly agreed that the current Forest Strategy is an ambitious action plan and many of its ideas have resulted in legislative proposals or guidelines – in particular the protection of primary and old-growth forests, which are important biodiversity hotspots.

Most speakers also thought it important to continue to pursue legislation to enable forest monitoring and comparison of data across European countries, to ensure that financial incentives and funding reach those undertaking the right forest management practices to increase resilience; and to support the transition towards regenerative forestry practices that strengthen the natural capital of forests while also generating economic value.

[Edited By Brian Maguire | Euractiv's Advocacy Lab ]