We have recently passed the 24 months (out of 48) mark of our project, and we are happy to share with you the summaries of our public-facing project deliverables that have been published by our consortium.
Important to note: all our public-facing deliverables are available on our website, in our “Resources” section, here
Combining both a top-down and bottom-up approach, the EU is committed to transitioning towards a sustainable, low-emission and circular (bio)economy. The objectives reflect the commitments of the European Green Deal. In order to function, the Green Deal requires comprehensive, well-informed/accurate policy measures. On the topic of its forests, which play a pivotal role in combatting climate change and biodiversity preservation, they require precise management strategies backed by accurate policy to function. Our PathFinder project fulfils those requirements, spearheading innovative forest monitoring and assessment across the EU’s forests, with the goal of building a strong foundation for accurate and inclusive (i.e. co-designed) forest policies, whilst at the same time being aligned with the region’s climate targets.
Looking more closely at the project, D4.1 serves as the first step and cornerstone to achieve this. It identifies and maps all pertinent policy targets that influence EU forests alongside forest management across various sectors and governance levels. The task is composed of two sections: (1) listing the targets, and (2) taking an in-depth approach to identifying key policy goals and objectives at both the EU and national levels in order to grasp a better idea of the surrounding context. In order to broaden the context, task leaders strategically selected member states from diverse regions within Europe to better capture (and represent) nuanced similarities and differences, as well as highlight the various interrelationships between forest and policy targets. On top of this, PathFinder seeks to uncover the tradeoffs within and between each of those policies, as well as the steps that have been/will be taken to resolve incoherencies, which is an essential component of future scenario development.
To undertake this task, policy researchers performed a literature review to identify key policy sectors that encompass overarching and cross-cutting policies at the EU and national levels. As part of the policy map creation process, policy documents from both the EU and national levels were analysed, looking more closely at legally-binding and non-binding instruments. These included directives, regulations, acts, legislation, communications, strategies, guidelines, and plans. Such policy instruments were selected based on current sectoral relevance and significance, both directly and indirectly, on forest governance – identifying goals, objectives, and targets.
In a nutshell, the results from the research are: when reviewing all policy sectors, there is a clear recognition of the multifunctional roles of forests. However, while forestry, nature conservation & environment and, to an extent, climate change policy sectors aim to sustainably preserve forests and their function (for carbon sequestration, biodiversity preservation etc), other forest-related sectors promote a management intensification (for instance in producing substitute to carbon-intensive products in the building sector, harvesting renewable sources of bioenergy etc.). At the EU and national levels, there was very poor integration of forests in water and soil sectors despite their inherent interconnectedness. Overall, the findings point to a persisting underdeveloped strategy in the EU forest governance in addressing unresolved policy trade-offs.
Author: ALU-FR 🇩🇪
