21 March 2021
Facts and figures about EU forests

45% of EU land – close to 182 million hectares are forest

 Of these, 131 million hectares are available for wood supply

 Forests are growing – from 1990 to 2015 an area the size of Greece was afforested
 Forests and the forest sector contribute to delivering sustainable solutions to current and future societal challenges

 Forests are one of Europe’s greatest renewable resources

 Two out of three Europeans think that providing animals natural habitats, conserving nature and absorbing CO2 are the key benefits of Forest (source: Eurobarometer)
 Forests provide many benefits for society and economy:

? raw materials for construction and other bio-based industries
? jobs and income for people, often in rural and remote areas
? reducing EU reliance on fossil fuels and providing green energy (biomass)
? climate change mitigation and adaptation
? pollution control, through air and water regulation and purification
? protection of fertile soils, preventing erosion, desertification, landslides, floods and avalanches
? biodiversity conservation and shelters for wildlife
? leisure spaces for people to relax.

Financial support for forestry in the CAP

The Common Agricultural Policy provides financial support to rural areas and EU countries can choose to fund forestry measures through their national rural development programmes. These measures are aimed at protecting forests, making it more resilient to climate change and safeguarding its multiple functions (environmental services, investments, innovation and training to the benefit of the rural economy).

These measures can support:

 afforestation or creation of woodland;

 new agroforestry systems (where trees and agricultural crops or pastures occupy the same land);

 prevention of forest damage caused by fires, natural disasters or catastrophic events, and restoring damaged forests;

 climate resilience and environmental value of forest ecosystems;

 investments in forest technologies, mobilising, processing and marketing of forest products;

 land management contracts for forest-environment-climate services and forest conservation;

 conservation and promotion of forest genetic resources.

The rural development policy is the main EU funding instrument for implementing the EU Forest Strategy in support of the protection and sustainable management of forests. In the 2014-2020 Rural Development Programmes, the budget for forestry measures is €6.7 billion.

How EU forests contribute to:
Innovation, growth, jobs, and the circular bioeconomy


Wood and other forest products make an essential contribution to economic growth and to raising living standards.
60% of the EU forests are privately owned, with approximately 16 million forest owners.
Some 420 000 enterprises were active in wood-based industries in 2015. They represented 20% of manufacturing enterprises across the EU-28.
About 0.5 million people worked in the forestry and logging sector in the EU in 2015
The extended forest-based industry value chains supported 3.6 million jobs in the green economy, with a turnover of €640 billion (2015).
Forests also provide non-wood products, such as cork, resin, tannin, fodder, medicinal and aromatic plants, fruits, nuts, roots, mushrooms, seeds, honey, ornamentals, exudates, etc.
 Forests support rural economies and help prevent population drift to urban areas.

 Forests are a source of a huge variety of natural materials.

47% of Europe’s renewable energy comes from biomass from forests.


How EU forests help fighting climate change
Forests help achieve a carbon-neutral EU economy by 2050, as they can absorb carbon from the atmosphere and store it in soils, standing trees, forest biomass, thus mitigating the effect of emissions from fossil fuels.

Sustainable management of forests

Climate change is already damaging Europe’s forests directly and indirectly through forest fires, droughts and unprecedented bark beetle outbreaks. The new EU strategy on adaptation to climate change, adopted by the European Commission on 24 February 2021, sets out how the European Union can adapt to the unavoidable impacts of climate change and strengthen the resilience of forests.
Assessing the impacts of climate change on European forests

The thematic report on Temporal and geographical coverage of available data for assessing the impacts of climate change on European forests summarises the temporal and geographical coverage of available data for assessing the impacts of climate change on European forests. It focuses on three areas: 1) forests’ climate vulnerability; 2) climate-related hazards and their impacts on forests (area, timber volume/type and economic value) and 3) forest vegetation change caused by changing climatic conditions.

Protecting and restoring our forests with the EU Biodiversity Strategy

Forests are our lungs and life-support system, covering 30% of the Earth’s land area and hosting 80% of its biodiversity. With the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, adopted on 20 May 2020, the European Commission wants to protect and restore EU forests. The aim is to increase the area of forest coverage in the EU, the resilience of forests and their role in reverting biodiversity loss, and help us mitigate the impacts of climate change. A dedicated report on old-growth forests will be published in Spring 2021.

Forests’ biodiversity and ecosystem services

50% of Natura 2000 area, the EU network of nature protection areas, is forest, covering 38 million hectares. 26.7% of the total forest resources in the EU are protected for biodiversity and/or landscape protection.
About 30% of EU forests are managed mainly for protection of soil, water and other ecosystem services.

Coming up: The New EU Forest Strategy

In the framework of the European Green Deal, the European Commission is working on a new EU Forest Strategy, covering the whole forest cycle and promoting the many services that forests provide.

The strategy’s key objective will be to ensure growing, healthy, diverse and resilient EU forests, applying sustainable forest management practices and biodiversity-friendly afforestation.

As part of this new strategy, we are working on:
a roadmap for planting 3 billion trees by 2030
a legislative proposal on deforestation-free products on the EU market.
To prepare this new strategy the European Commission launched a public consultation, open until 19 April 2021.
On the occasion of the International Day of Forests, the European Commission will publish a guidance on land-based wildfire prevention prepared by an expert group on forest fires. This publication will include principles and experiences on managing landscapes, forests and woodlands for safety and resilience in Europe.
Examples of EU-funded projects in the forestry domain
GOTECFOR – Supporting the use of Forest Biomass in the agro-industry, Portugal
A Portuguese forest federation teamed up with private companies and research institutes to set up an EIP-AGRI operational group to improve the efficiency of the forest biomass supply chain.
 
Tiges et chavées - Sustainable management of private forests, Belgium (Wallonia)
Promoting the sustainable management of small, privately owned forests
 
Territorial supply plans for French forestry, France
French rural areas use a tool known as a Territorial supply plan (Plan d’approvisionnement territorial – PAT) to develop and coordinate knowledge about opportunities from woodland areas.
 
Forest games – funny & money in the woods, Finland
Using digital technologies to re-establish the connection between young people and forests.

Research and innovation in forestry

The EU-funded projects listed below are examples of how research and innovation can contribute to healthy, multifunctional and ecologically diverse forests in the EU.
INCREdible - Innovation Networks of Cork, Resins and Edibles in the Mediterranean basin

ROSEWOOD4.0 - Network for wood mobilisation in Europe focusses on digital solutions

InnoForESt - Smart information, governance and business innovations for sustainable supply and payment mechanisms for forest ecosystem services
FORGENIUS - Improving access to forest genetic resources information and services for end-users

B4EST - Adaptive breeding for productive, sustainable and resilient forests under climate change
Build-in-Wood – Sustainable wood value chains for construction of low-carbon multi-storey buildings from renewable resources
DIABOLO - Distributed, integrated and harmonised forest information for bioeconomy outlooks.

LIFE projects
Ready, steady, green!

Publication giving a general overview on the work done by LIFE projects on forest and adaptation, highlighting a selection of projects
 
LIFE FORECCAsT, France
Providing information, user-friendly tools and other means to tackle the challenges of climate change
 
LIFE_Redcapacita2015, Spain
Improvement of the management of Spanish Mediterranean forests

LIFE-KEDROS, Cyprus
Maintaining the priority habitat in the Koilada Kedron-Kampos in good conservation status in the long term
 
GOProFOR LIFE, Italy & France
Fostering exchange of knowledge and good practice for the management of biodiversity of forest habitats

LIFE BIORGEST, Spain & France
Improving the biodiversity of Mediterranean forests in Catalonia and in Occitanie
 
LIFE PRIMED, Greece & Italy
Restoration, management and valorisation of priority habitats of Mediterranean coastal areas
 
LIFE Open Woods, Denmark
Improvement of the conservation status of forest habitats with a focus on Osmoderma eremita