5.

Stresses that the promotion of SFM in the EU, as part of the EU Forest Strategy and the rural development measures implemented under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), has had a broadly positive impact on forests and forest conditions and on livelihoods in rural areas, as well as on the biodiversity of forests in the EU, and has enhanced the climate benefits offered by the forest-based sector; notes, however, that there is still a need to strengthen SFM in a balanced manner in order to ensure that forests’ ecological status improves, to enhance the health and resilience of ecosystems and ensure that they are better able to adapt to changing climate conditions, to reduce the risks and impacts of natural disturbances, and to safeguard opportunities for present and future generations to manage forests, for example in such a way that forest owners' and SMEs’ objectives are realised, and to improve the quality of existing forests and woodland; considers that the EU forest strategy should include adequate instruments in this regard; points out that the Member States are obliged to undertake SFM in exemplary fashion; considers that forest management models should incorporate environmental, societal and economic sustainability, which means that the stewardship and use of forests and forest lands are such that they maintain their biodiversity, productivity, regeneration capacity, vitality and potential to fulfil, now and in the future, relevant ecological, economic and social functions at local, national and global levels and do not cause damage to other ecosystems; stresses that acknowledging and safeguarding property rights is key to achieving a long-term commitment to SFM; notes that safeguarding and sustainably managing our forests is a core part of our general wellbeing, as they are a home for public-interest activities in the field of leisure and health as well as education, and recognises that SFM promotes the protection of European forest biodiversity; calls for the protection of primary forests with preserved structure, species richness and adequate area where such forests still persist; notes that there is no EU definition of old growth forests and calls on the Commission to introduce a definition, to be prepared in the Standing Forestry Committee, in the process of drafting the future EU Forest Strategy; stresses that there could be diverging views on the CO 2 absorption capacities of different kinds of forests, and therefore believes the new EU forest strategy should promote sustainable forest management; regrets the unsustainable practices and illegal logging taking place in some Member States despite the EU Timber Regulation, and further calls on the Member States to do more to put an end to it, and also to improve or strengthen their national legislation where necessary; urges the Commission and the Member States to take urgent action on these issues, through close monitoring and through the enforcement of existing EU laws, and calls on the Commission to swiftly pursue infringement procedures when breaches occur, as well as to follow through on illegal logging cases through all competent bodies; calls on the Commission to finalise, without delay, the fitness check of EU rules against illegal logging;