WRITTEN QUESTION E-4144/97 by Mirja Ryynänen (ELDR) to the Commission (21 January 1998)

Subject: Role of tree-planting in dealing with the problem of greenhouse gases

Forests play a major role in binding greenhouse gases back into the natural cycle. However, a larger area of forest is currently being destroyed than the area of new forest being grown to replace it. The world's forestry resources are also decreasing to a worrying extent as a result of erosion.

Has the Commission considered measures to encourage a) the EU Member States and b) the countries involved in development cooperation with the EU to increase the effectiveness of their afforestation activities so as to have a long-term effect on reducing the world's CO2 levels and soil erosion?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission (30 March 1998)

The Commission encourages both Member States and countries involved in development co-operation with the Community to protect their forests and enhance their afforestation efforts.

Within the Community the forest area is increasing and measures have been established to protect and further enlarge the forest resource. The Community scheme for afforestation of agricultural land and forest improvement aims explicitly at carbon absorption with a view to the greenhouse effect and at countryside management compatible with the environmental balance. It participates in the costs relating to the afforestation of agricultural land and silvicultural improvement of certain existing forests. The measure was initiated in 1992 and by April 1996 550 000 hectares had been afforested and the Member States have committed a much larger area to afforestation under the scheme. The expenditure at the end of 1996 was 500 MECU.

Similarly, the Community co-finances measures to prevent forest fires. Since 1991, 74 MECU was allocated from the Community budget to 600 fire prevention projects forming part of national or regional fire-protection plans submitted by the Member States and a Community scheme has also been set up to study the causes of fires and evaluate protective action.

Community actions to protect and enhance the domestic forest resource also take place in the scheme on protection of forests against atmospheric pollution, in the Community research programmes and within the rural development programme in objective 1 and 5b regions.

At the pan-European level, the Helsinki ministerial conference on the protection of forests in Europe includes a specific resolution for a process of long-term adaptation of forests in Europe to climatic change.

Industry can also contribute through increased use of wood in ways helping to stock carbon and the good thermal insulation properties of wood have potential in building construction while the theme of wood-based energy has been developed in the white paper on renewable energy ((COM(97) 599 final. )).

Concerning development co-operation with third countries, a wide range of activities have been financed that involve tree planting, especially on farms and in buffer zones surrounding protected areas both in tropical forest programmes and rural development projects.

The Community has co-financed the largest international programme in the field of tropical forests, the Brazil pilot programme with commitments of 57 MECU. It aims at the conservation and sustainable development of the Amazon rain forest. The activities have focused on establishing the policy framework for conservation and since 1996 also field projects have been financed on a pilot scale to encourage the sustainable management of forests as sinks of carbon dioxide.

Reforestation and forest regeneration has been important in the Community programmes in the Asian region to help combat massive loss of forest land. However, so far most Community actions have been experimental and in the future there will be more focus on the key institutional constraints to tree planting, such as forest law and land tenure, the availability of credit and markets, and technical capacities.

For African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP), the revised fourth Lomé Convention, signed in 1995, identifies deforestation as a serious problem and contains a protocol on sustainable management of forest resources. The green paper on relations between the European Union and the ACP countries on the eve of the 21st century - challenges and options for a new partnership ((COM(96) 570 final. )) identifies the destruction of forests as a theme meriting particular attention and the Community guidelines for forest sector development include the creation of forest resources.

From 1992 to 1996, the Community provided 466 MECU to 510 projects concerning tropical forests. The principal sources of funding are the tropical forest budget line (with 52% of total forestry commitments) and the Asia and Latin America countries budget lines (with 27%).

At the global level, the Community has been the driving force in establishing the intergovernmental panel on forests under the United Nations commission for sustainable development. The proposals for actions of the panel were endorsed at the United Nations general assembly special session in 1997 and they form an important basis for further co-operation with a view to sustainable forestry.

The important role of forests in assimilating greenhouse gases was recognised at the recent Kyoto Conference. Human-induced changes in forest biomass stock, such as the Community scheme for afforestation of agricultural land referred to above, qualify in meeting the emission reduction commitments under the protocol.