Debate: New EU Forest Strategy for  – Sustainable Forest Management in Europe
Date: MONDAY, 12 SEPTEMBER 2022
Speaker: Virginijus Sinkevičius
Language: EN

And, I have to say, I can agree with most of the statements made today. For example, by Ms Müller, the rapporteur, who stressed the very clearly the role of forest owners, especially the smallholders, and the need to support them and get them on board to support our strategy. Or by Ms Beňová who acknowledged that we need to address the health of our forests at European level. Or by Ms Avram who stressed the need to support Member States in their efforts to better protect forests and Mr Ștefănuță who recalled that protecting our forests is the best investment for the future. But let me briefly also raise a couple of issues. First of all, on the need to support foresters and forest owners. Forest owners and managers need drivers and financial incentives to acknowledge the ecosystem services linked to the adoption of most climate- and biodiversity-friendly forest management practices. So the new CAP for 2023–2027 offers increased flexibility to design forest-related interventions according to national needs and specificities, as well as reducing red tape while linking and ensuring a synergetic approach between the European Green Deal, national forest policies and the EU environment and climate legislation. The recommendations to Member States on the CAP strategic plans for the 2023–2027 period have encouraged due consideration of forests. The forest strategy further calls on Member States to set up under the CAP and other EU financial instrument payment schemes for ecosystem services for forest owners and management, and accelerate the roll-out of carbon farming practices through this and other public instruments. On the need to ensure biomass availability and biodiversity protection – we are looking for the multiple wins: biodiversity, climate and bioeconomy. We can and we must minimise trade-offs between preservation of forests and timber supply. Nature is our best ally in the fight against climate change. The EU forest strategy will not negatively affect the overall availability of timber for the bioeconomy and will increase the resilience of forest ecosystems and help meet other social demands. The new forest strategy aims at preserving carbon in the long run. The proposal for the revision of the Renewable Energy Directive as part of the ‘Fit for 55’ package sets out additional concrete safeguards. It includes strengthened sustainability criteria for bioenergy, extending the scope of application and enlarging no-go areas for sourcing; his means prohibiting the sourcing of forest biomass from primary forests and limiting it in highly biodiverse forests to ensure no interference with nature protection purposes. Of course, I have to mention forest fires, which many of you mentioned as well, which again we have experienced this summer all over Europe, starting actually very early. So the forest strategy acknowledges that the extent and intensity of forest fires in the EU will increase in the next years. And this is one of the main challenges that the EU strategy intends to overcome to the extent possible through the promotion of more healthy and resilient forests. This is clearly linked to prevention – in particular, complex stands composed of uneven-age and multiple species are less vulnerable to forest fires than even-age monocultures. The future legislative proposal on monitoring will also allow to have better data on the areas at risk and anticipate the need to intervene and to minimise them. So, once again, dear members of Parliament, as you know, the implementation of the strategy, which was adopted by the Commission more or less a year ago, is already on its way. And the Commission is paving the way towards a legislative proposal on forest monitoring and strategic plans and preparatory work on the new governance is also ongoing. But implementing this strategy is a long-term process and will require continued support and engagement from all stakeholders. Your report will be most a valuable contribution in the implementation of the strategy that aims to ensure a healthy, prosperous future for our forests.