Study on Sustainable Forest Management
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Commission for Natural Resources Sustainable Forest Management NAT in Regions © European Union, 2018 Partial reproduction is permitted, provided that the source is explicitly mentioned. More information on the European Union and the Committee of the Regions is available online at http://www.europa.eu and http://www.cor.europa.eu respectively. Catalogue number: QG-01-18-762-EN-N; ISBN: 978-92-895-0967-1; doi:10.2863/390900 This report was written by Rossella Soldi (Progress Consulting S.r.l.) and Simona Cavallini (Fondazione FORMIT). It does not represent the official views of the European Committee of the Regions. Table of contents Summary .............................................................................................................. 1 Part 1 Introduction ......................................................................................... 5 1.1 Background ................................................................................................. 5 1.2 Forest area and ownership by local and regional authorities ...................... 6 Part 2 Implementation of the EU Forest Strategy and its impact at the local and regional level with examples ............................................................ 11 2.1 The online consultation ............................................................................. 11 2.2 LRAs owning and/or managing forests: profile of the sample participating in the consultation ..................................................................................... 13 2.3 Implementation and impact at the local and regional level ...................... 15 Part 3 Funding ............................................................................................... 31 3.1 Forest funding through the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development ............................................................................................. 31 3.2 Supporting the forest sector through other sources ................................... 37 Part 4 Expectations of LRAs on the future of the EU Forest Strategy .... 43 Part 5 Conclusions and recommendations ................................................. 49 5.1 Facilitating the contribution of LRAs ....................................................... 50 5.2 Meeting the expectations of LRAs ............................................................ 51 Annex I – List of references .............................................................................. 53 Annex II – Questionnaire for the consultation (English version) ................. 57 List of acronyms BBB JU Bio-based Industry Joint Undertaking CF Cohesion Fund COR/CdR European Committee of the Regions/ Comité européen des régions DG AGRI Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development EAFRD European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development EASME Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises EC European Commission EIB European Investment Bank EIP-AGRI European Innovation Partnership for Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability ERDF European Regional Development Fund ESF European Social Fund ESIF European Structural and Investment Funds ETC European Territorial Cooperation EU European Union EUR Euro FAO Food and Agricultural Organization FRA Forest Resources Assessment FSC Forest Stewardship Council FTP Forest-based Sector Technology Platform ha hectares LRAs Local and Regional Authorities MAP Multi-annual implementation plan MS Member States PEFC Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification RDPs Rural Development Programmes SFM Sustainable Forest Management UNECE United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Summary Forests owned by local and regional authorities (LRAs) across the European Union (EU) represent an estimated 14% of the total EU forest area, equivalent to about 22 million of hectares. LRAs do not only own forests. They also manage forests, administer forest policy implementation, enforce forest laws, and provide support to private forest management. This study is meant to contribute to the upcoming review of the EU Forest Strategy (COM(2013)659) by collecting insights of LRAs’ experience in forest management, of their opinion on the impact the EU Forest Strategy has had so far at the territorial level, and of their expectations on the future priorities of the EU forest policy. In terms of type of owners, forests’ ownership at the sub-national level is prevalently (80%) with local authorities (municipalities, provinces, counties). Across the EU, local authorities own some 17.4 million hectares of forests and regional authorities about 4.5 million hectares of forests. In terms of distribution, sub-national public ownership of forests characterises the continental and the southern parts of Europe. The highest shares of forests owned by LRAs are found in Germany (48% of total forest area), Belgium (37%), Spain (37%), Luxembourg (34%) and Italy (24%). In eight EU countries, LRAs have either no forest ownership (Croatia, Cyprus, Ireland, Lithuania and Malta) or a share of forest ownership which is below 1% of the total forest area (Hungary, Poland and Portugal). Within the framework of this study, LRAs owning/managing forests were consulted by means of an online questionnaire. Because of the specificity of the topic and the difficulty in identifying ‘informed’ invitees, significant resources were deployed to mobilise respondents. As a result, a total of 70 questionnaires from 14 EU countries were received (i.e. submitted online), 40% of which were from regional authorities and the remaining 60% from local authorities. This number represents a rather low rate of response (below 10%) if compared to the dissemination effort. However, it is believed that completed questionnaires came from respondents who were sufficiently motivated and informed. Responding LRAs are forest managers (41%), forest owners (27%) or both (31%). Their forests are prevalently used for protection and conservation purposes, for social functions, and for timber production. The use of management plans, the inclusion of biodiversity considerations in these plans, and the pursuit of sustainable forest management principles appear to be common practices for the majority of them (76%). In addition, 39% of the public authorities participating in the consultation have some or all of their forests certified. This share rises to 1 46% for regional authorities. Overall, the evidence collected through the questionnaire and complemented with cases gathered through desk research shows that LRAs may be very active forest owners as well as forest managers who are concerned about sustainable management practices. As regards impact and according to the opinion and experience of the participants in the consultation, the EU Forest Strategy has so far progressed rather unsatisfactorily towards its main objectives. In particular, it is not considered to have contributed enough to stimulate the growth of forest-based industries (scored an average 4.8 on a scale from 1 to 10), and to satisfy the growing demand for raw material for existing and new products as well as for renewable energy (average score 5). Respondents have a slightly more positive perception of the impact forests and their management have at the territorial level, especially in terms of the improvement of the quality of the environment, and of citizens’ quality of life. However, the contribution of forests and their management to economic growth, job creation and rural development is still limited (on a scale from 1 to 10, average scores are 5.7, 5.5 and 5.8, respectively). Another area of concern relates to engagement. The EU Forest Strategy has apparently not succeeded in reaching out to institutional stakeholders at the local and regional level. More than two-thirds of the respondents state that their entity has not benefitted from general engagement activities such as EU level dissemination of forest-related results and good practices (70%) or EC forest-related information and communication activities (77%). With regard to some sector-specific initiatives of the EC, including in the regulatory domain, an important part of the respondents is not aware of them, pointing to evident problems in communication flows. The analysis of the funding of the forest sector highlights that, for the programming period 2014-2020, an overall (under)estimated amount of EUR 7.6 billion has benefitted forest-related activities, out of which about EUR 5.1 billion (67%) is contributed by EU funds. More precisely, EUR 7,132 million have been earmarked to the sector through Measure 8 and Measure 15 of the Rural Development Programmes (RDPs); EUR 93 million have been mobilised under the European regional policy (Interreg and the Solidarity Fund); and at least EUR 378 million have been mobilised under EU programmes directly managed by the EC (Horizon 2020, LIFE, and Erasmus+). In addition to grants and co-financing, about EUR 300 million have been lent through the European Investment Bank (EIB) and other funds aimed at facilitating investments in the sector. Therefore, to date allocations through RDPs represent 94% of the total funding of the sector, confirming the approach reiterated in the EU Forest Strategy to support forest-related activities mainly through the rural development policy. Although this approach is agreed by the majority of respondents (61%), funding needs remain unmet for almost half of them (47%) 2 while a significant 37% admits that their entity does not use the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD)