SAVE-THE-DATE: "Sustainable management of forests – How to seek a balance through EU policies?"

SAVE-THE-DATE: EP Intergroup event on "Sustainable management of forests – How to seek a balance through EU policies?" - 27 April 2022, 13:00 – 15:00 CEST

Several ongoing EU-policies include provisions related to sustainable forest management (SFM); as these policies are interlinked, outcomes of one policy might have a certain impact to others. Specifically, while these provisions are not fully in-line with each other, nor in line with already approved EU-policies and objectives, the lack of clarity and coherence within policies creates a lack of input for forest owners and managers hampering the planning of future management of their forests.

Meanwhile, SFM is a key tool for forest owners and managers to ensure the best possible management of their forests, making sure that the decisions they make are ecologically, economically and socially sustainable. SFM is a dynamic and evolving concept, and currently Forest Europe is working on revisiting the set of criteria and indicators for SFM that have been defined and agreed within this pan-European process.

This online event aims at therefore bringing together speakers to exchange about the future of sustainable forest management concept and practices, to clarify the current complexities put forward by several EU-policies concerning provisions related to SFM, and to debate the feasibility of these provisions and possible ways forward, in order to render EU political decisions aligned with constraints and expectations from the ground.

Draft Agenda:

Moderated by Jo O’Hara (tbc)

13:00 – 13:10: Welcome remarks by MEP Jytte Guteland, and MEP Elsi Katainen

13:10 – 13:20: Intervention by Isabelle Mellier, Assistant to the Deputy Director of the forest-wood, horse and bioeconomy sectors, French Ministry of Agriculture (tbc)

13:20 – 13:25: Video-message from forest-owners and managers

13:25 – 13:35: Keynote speech by Daniela Kleinschmit, Professor of Forest and Environmental Policy, University of Freiburg (tbc)

13:35 – 13:40: Video-message from forest-owners and managers

13:40 – 14:20: Panel discussion with the participation of:

• Bernhard Wolfslehner, Head of EFI's Governance Programme, Forest Europe (tbc)
• Mihail Dumitru, Deputy Director-General, DG AGRI, European Commission (tbc)
• Chantal van Ham, Acting Director, IUCN European Regional Office (tbc)
• Antti Asiakainen, Executive Vice President for Research, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) (tbc)
• Dr. Christian Metschina, Head of Department of Energy, Climate and Bioresources, Chamber of Agriculture in Styria, Austria (tbc)

14:20 – 14:35: Reactions (5’ per speaker) from:

• MEP Ulrike Müller (tbc)
• MEP Luisa Regimenti (tbc)
• Representative of the Czech future Presidency of the Council of the EU (tbc)

14:35 – 14:55: Q&A session with the audience

14:55 – 15:00: Key take-away messages by MEP Simone Schmiedtbauer

Register here. 

^{Photo by SIW}