Together with SoEF 2020 lead authors, our colleague Stefanie Linser has published a paper in Forest Policy and Economics where they analysed forest relevant targets in EU policy instruments and investigated whether progress can be measured by the pan-European indicators for sustainable forest management.

In five of the analysed EU policy instruments, eight quantitative and 16 qualitative targets occur, which address forest-relevant issues. Half of the targets focus on biodiversity, five targets on forest area and carbon flows, three targets on socioeconomic functions, and some more targets focus on forest health and vitality, protective functions, and productive functions of forests. The analysis of the policy instruments shows that forest issues are not approached at the policy level in a sector-defined “silo”. Forest-relevant targets are completely integrated into the policy instruments, appearing alongside targets for neighbouring sectors or actions in a wider context.

The analysis displays that pan-European indicators for sustainable forest management are appropriate to provide information on progress towards 11 out of 24 identified forest-relevant targets. However, the suitability of the pan-European indicators for providing information on progress towards targets varies across the policy instruments.

The results of this study may contribute to reporting on progress towards forest-relevant targets in EU forest-related policies, notably by identifying what parameters could be measured/monitored and might facilitate forest-related target setting in revisions and new development of policy instruments, particularly the revision of the EU Forest Strategy.

More information is available here.