A new EU Forest Strategy: for forests and the forest-based sector 2013.

This European Union forest strategy lays down the framework for forest-related actions that support sustainable forest management and are based on cooperative, beneficial links between European Union and Member State policies and initiatives. The main goals of these strategic document are: (i) to ensure that the multifunctional potential of EU forests is managed in a sustainable and balanced way, enabling our forests’ vital ecosystem services to function correctly; (ii) to satisfy the growing demand for raw material for existing and new products and for renewable energy; (iii) to protect forests and biodiversity from the significant effects of storms and fires, increasingly scarce water resources, and pests.
The strategy aims at making forestry more productive and sustainable. It identifies the key principles needed to strengthen sustainable forest management and improve competitiveness and job creation, in particular in rural areas, while ensuring forest protection and delivery of ecosystem services. The document relies upon the following guiding principles: (a) sustainable forest management and the multifunctional role of forests, delivering multiple goods and services in a balanced way and ensuring forest protection; (b) resource efficiency, optimizing the contribution of forests and the forest sector to rural development, growth and job creation; (c) global forest responsibility, promoting sustainable production and consumption of forest products.
Reducing rural poverty is among the objectives of the strategy. The document stipulates that a sustainable, trained and safe workforce is one of the pillars of a more competitive forest sector: well-managed forests with qualified forest managers, workers and entrepreneurs pave the way for a sustainable and competitive forest sector that plays an important role in rural development and in the whole economy while providing societal benefits.
The strategy also aims at enabling more inclusive and efficient agricultural and forest systems. Strategic orientations and interventions are foreseen for fostering the competitiveness and sustainability of the EU’s forest-based industries, bioenergy and the wider green economy, and improving the knowledge base.
With a view to increasing the resilience of livelihoods to disasters, the strategy lays down specific orientations related to climate change and forests. Member States should demonstrate: (i) how they intend to increase their forests’ mitigation potential through increased removals and reduced emissions, including by cascading use of wood, taking into account that the new LIFE+ subprogram for Climate action and Rural Development funding can promote and support new or existing forest management practices that limit emissions or increase net biological productivity; (ii) how they enhance their forests’ adaptive capacities and resilience, building on the actions proposed in the EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change and the Green Paper on Forest Protection and information, such as bridging knowledge gaps and mainstreaming adaptation action in forest policies.