European forests can help reach climate goals

Reconciling forest productivity and environmental protection as well as unleashing the potential of bioeconomy, while achieving climate targets - these are the EPP Group’s goals for today’s vote on a new European Forest Strategy in Parliament’s Agriculture Committee.

“The EU is currently ignoring the potential of the bioeconomy. In addition, the public debate on forests is coloured by a black-and-white confrontation in which the forest industry is being made the scapegoat. The opposite is actually true. It must be emphasised that forest productivity and natural values are not mutually exclusive", said Petri Sarvamaa MEP, who drafted and negotiated Parliament’s position on the European Forest Strategy.

"The negotiations were complex, as each MEP defended the positions of their own Member States. However, my aim was to promote sustainable, rational and fact-based forest policy. The positions of the Environment Committee and the Industry Committee were also taken into account in the negotiations”, stated Sarvamaa.

European forests and other wooded land cover nearly 43% of the Union’s surface. The forest-based sector and the bioeconomy employs at least 500,000 European citizens directly and 2.6 million indirectly.

"European forests and the EU forest sector need to be positioned as integral contributors to reaching the objectives of the European Green Deal. If the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee’s position is adopted by the plenary in October, we can send a strong and factual political message to the European Commission. The role of sustainable forestry must be seen as an integral part of achieving the EU's climate and environmental goals, and not vice-versa”, Sarvamaa concluded.