Commission seeks to make forests sustainable

The reform of the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) in 2003 which has strengthened EU rural development policy has put a greater emphasis on forestry.

A European Commission forest action plan published in June addressed several challenges: increased competition from low-cost timber producers in developing countries, climate change, environmental damage and biodiversity loss.

The EU had previously brought out a forest strategy in 1998 which emphasised the different uses of forests, from economic to ecological, and an action plan in 2004 on forest law enforcement, governance and trade, which brought in a voluntary licensing scheme to combat illegal logging.

This year’s action plan focuses on improving the competitiveness of the forest sector by encouraging research in the area and promoting the use of forests in the biomass process of producing energy (see above). On the environment, the action plan pledges to examine how the EU’s climate change obligations under the Kyoto Protocol can be met through forestry and to monitor how vulnerable forests and species can be protected. Finally the action plan seeks to encourage education and exchange of information between member states on the benefits of sustainable forest management and strengthen co-ordination in the Commission between policy areas in forest-related matters.

Despite efforts to address such issues, the EU has little competence in the area of forestry and therefore can go little further than launching studies, monitoring trends and exchanging information. This is reflected in the diverse emphasis given to forestry across the Union with 74% of Finland and 67% of Sweden covered in forests while only 10% of Ireland and 11% of the Netherlands are covered in forest.

Some stakeholders have criticised the EU’s attempt to establish a European policy on forests, while others have said that this year’s action plan did not go far enough in pointing out the real issues affecting the sector. "It could have pointed out the problems that currently exist and the contradictions between timber production, biomass on the one hand and biodiversity on the other," says Saskia Ozinga, co-ordinator in FERN, an environmental group focusing on forests. Ozinga believes, however, that the Commission’s rural development regulation may go some way to address issues such as forest restoration, conservation and sustainability in that €10 billion will be made available in 2007-13 for forests.

The reform of the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) in 2003 which has strengthened EU rural development policy has put a greater emphasis on forestry.