Debate: The European Forest Strategy - The Way Forward
Date: TUESDAY, 6 OCTOBER 2020
Speaker: Janusz Wojciechowski
Language: EN

The gross value added from forestry directly is EUR 26.5 billion, and about EUR 142 billion from the wood-based sector. This is a very important sector. Of course, the forest plays a very important role in the protection of biodiversity, climate protection, water management, air protection, etc.  I hope this own initiative report will be adopted by the European Parliament, because it will be very helpful and inspiring for the forest strategy being prepared by the Commission. This strategy will be published in the first quarter of 2021. The main direction of this strategy is defined in the Green Deal Communication, which mentioned that, building on the 23rd biodiversity strategy, the Commission would prepare a new forest strategy covering the whole forest cycle and promoting the many services that forests provide. The biodiversity strategy also mentioned that the EU must increase the quantity, quality and resilience of its forest, notably against fires, droughts, pests and diseases, and other threats likely to increase with climate change.  There is a strong link between forestry and agriculture and the farm to fork strategy. Agroforestry was listed as a potential eco-scheme – a very important part of the first pillar of the common agricultural policy – and the Commission will propose agroforestry as a potential eco-scheme in the recommendation to the Member States for their national strategic plans.  As President von der Leyen stated in her recent State of the Union speech, our current levels of consumption of raw materials, energy, water, food and land use are not sustainable. We need to change how we treat nature, how we produce and consume. Securing the health and resilience of existing and new forests, including under novel climatic conditions in the future, is crucial for their effective support to all the environmental, social and economic functions and services that forests provide to our society. This is why forests are an integral part of the European Green Deal and its EU biodiversity strategy 2030, which reiterates that forests are hugely important for biodiversity, climate and water regulation, the provision of food, medicines and materials, carbon sequestration and storage, soil stabilisation and the purification of air and water. They are also a natural home for recreation and learning about nature, while culture and heritage are preserved. With lively rural areas and wealthy rural populations, they offer opportunities for people and the planet.  Against the wider context that I outlined above, the EU forest strategy will reflect the importance of forests for achieving the different objectives and priorities of the European Green Deal. It will require a holistic approach carried out for, on the one hand, sustainable forest management that improves both their quantity and quality and, on the other hand, the multifunctional role of forests for the economic sector and communities that depend on them.  Key objectives of the new EU forest strategy will be effective re- and afforestation, as well as forest preservation and restoration in Europe. Furthermore, the aim is to help increase absorption of CO2, reduce the incidence and extent of forest fires and other climate-related pressures, and promote the circular bioeconomy in full respect of ecological principles favourable to biodiversity.  The strategy will need the right balance and synergies between the different socioeconomic interests related to forests and the need to increase our forest protection and restoration efforts to achieve our climate and biodiversity goals.  The forest strategy will need to have a strong protection and restoration dimension in strong cooperation with foresters and local communities. In line with the biodiversity strategy, the last remaining primary and old growth forests in the EU need to be protected. An inclusive process has already started, involving Member States and all stakeholders, to achieve that. In addition, some parts of the new protected areas under the regular protection regime will probably also need to include forests.  The upcoming forest strategy will also include a roadmap for planting at least three billion additional trees – maybe more – in the EU by 2030, in full respect of ecological principles. This was a key commitment in the biodiversity strategy to deliver on Green Deal objectives and thus contribute to both climate mitigation and adaptation and revert biodiversity loss. In parallel, the EU forest strategy will have to have a strong economic dimension. It has to lay the foundations for innovation and the promotion of new products, and to replace the intensive fossil-based materials and effectively contribute to a new low carbon society. As an example, President von der Leyen referred in her State of the Union speech to turning the construction sector from a carbon source to a carbon sink by applying organic building materials like wood. Moreover, under the CAP, the EU will also increasingly have to help to ensure that forestry in the EU, together with agriculture, is socially, economically and environmentally sustainable, supporting and strengthening the benefits that forestry brings to European society and providing sustainable economic rewards for farmers, forest managers and the EU as a whole. Overall, let me conclude, the new EU forest strategy will aim to build sustainable forest management and, aligned with relevant EU international commitments, the strategy’s principles and objectives should also help inform EU policy relevant to forests and the forest sector.  It is essential to ensure consistency on EU forest-related policies and the action on internal forests. We will take the European Parliament’s resolution fully into account when developing the upcoming forest strategy, as well as the recently adopted resolution on the Commission’s communication on stepping up action to protect the world’s forests, which we welcome.  The Commission looks forward to working closely together with the European Parliament on the future strategy.