The New EU Forest Strategy for 2030: A New Understanding of Sustainable Forest Management?

Two decades after the pan-European set of indicators for sustainable forest management was adopted, the European Commission published the New EU Forest Strategy for 2030. We compared the documents on the basis of a content analysis to determine whether they share the same understanding of sustainable forest management. We looked at whether, and to what extent, the existing indicator set is fit for purpose to monitor progress towards the Strategy's objectives, and the delivery of policy commitments. About two thirds of the identified objectives and commitments in the Strategy can be monitored at least partially by the pan-European set of indicators, whereas new indicators or approaches need to be developed for the remaining third. Several of the indicators are not linked to the Strategy, and some of them are only weakly linked to the policy issues addressed in the Strategy. Our comparison shows a few significant differences between the comprehensive vision of sustainable forest management formulated in the indicator set and the scope of the objectives and commitments in the Strategy. In particular, the forest policy concerns reflected in the Strategy address several issues which are not fully covered in the pan-European indicator set.

Automated summary

This study compares the differences between the pan-European set of indicators for sustainable forest management and the New EU Forest Strategy for 2030 through content analysis. The results show that while most objectives and commitments can be monitored using the existing indicator set, new indicators are needed to meet the Strategy's requirements. Additionally, there are some differences between the comprehensive vision of sustainable forest management in the indicator set and the scope of the objectives and commitments in the Strategy.