Brussels, 20/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 20 September, the European Commission presented a new EU forest strategy, to replace that of 1998.
Covering 40% of the EU area, forests are, according to the new strategy, an essential resource for improving the quality of life and creating jobs, especially in rural areas, while protecting ecosystems and providing ecological benefits for everyone. “Sustainable forest management, ensuring the protection of forests, is a key pillar of rural development and it is one of the principles of the new Forest Strategy”, commented Dacian Ciolos, Agriculture Commissioner.
The strategy follows an innovative approach by addressing aspects of the “value chain” (i.e. the way forest resources are used to generate goods and services), which have a considerable influence on forest management. The strategy highlights that forests are not only important for rural development but also for the environment and biodiversity, for the wood and timber sector, for bio-energy and for combating climate change. Underlining the need to adopt a “holistic” approach, the strategy also highlights the impact that other policies have on forests, and developments taking place beyond forest boundaries should be taken into account. Furthermore, the Commission considers that linked EU policies should be fully taken into account in national forest policies. Finally, the strategy also calls for a forest information system to be set up and for Europe-wide harmonised information on forests to be collected.
Current EU forestry strategy dates back to 1998. Based on cooperation between EU and member states (subsidiary and shared responsibility), the strategy established a framework for forest-related actions supporting sustainable forest management. However, a new framework is now needed in order to respond to the increasing demands put on forests and to significant societal and political changes that have affected forests over the last 15 years. The new strategy brings together various aspects of several complementary policy areas including rural development, enterprise, environment, bio-energy, climate change, research and development. In a related initiative, the Commission also published, on 20 September, a “blueprint” detailing the remedial activities that could be undertaken to help EU's forest-based industries overcome their current challenges.
Support for forests - an empty gesture?
The previous day, the EU Court of Auditors questions, in a special report, the added value of financial support for European forests (€535 million in 2007-2013). After audits carried out at the Commission and with Spanish, Italian, Hungarian, Austrian and Slovenian authorities, the Court of Auditors took the view that the findings from analyses of the forest sector were insufficient to justify European funding to improve the economic value of forests. It concludes that public aid was excessive compared to the needs. The Court found failings at the conception level and the level of implementation of the programme generally. It also regrets that member states had not used money available for what it was intended for.
As the programme for providing financial support to forests will be renewed for the 2014-2020 programming period, the Court recommends that the Commission assess the needs of the EU concerning improvement to the economic value of forests, and to clearly define the key elements to ensure that EU aid will be targeted in a way that meets the needs and in order to create European added value. Member states are invited to give an appropriate description in their rural development programmes of the specific economic needs and possibilities, proper to the different kinds of forest surfaces and beneficiaries. They are also asked to improve forest management by taking measures that provide for the drafting of forest management plans in most forestry exploitations and to promote the certification of forestry areas.
In its responses, the Commission plans to ensure with the European Parliament and the Council that there is a better definition of forests in the appropriate legislative acts. It undertakes to provide clearer explanations of the link between investment and forest improvement. It also plans, during the next financial programming period (2014-2020), for there to be a common monitoring and evaluation framework that includes the objectives and priorities to be respected.
COPA-COGECA welcomed the publication of this forest strategy. “A coherent framework is vital to ensure that we have a consistent approach across all policy areas which have an impact on forests”, the EU agricultural organisations comment. “Rules are currently fragmented and scattered across different policy areas so it is crucial to have a coherent approach”, says Pekka Pesonen, the COPA-COGECA secretary general. (LC/transl.jl)