ClientEarth’s contribution to the public consultation on the new EU Forest Strategy

ClientEarth urges the European Commission to prioritize the preservation of forests over their economic exploitation in the new EU Forest Strategy. The organization advocates for the strict protection of primary and old-growth forests, the integration of the Strategy with existing anti-illegal logging frameworks like the EUTR and FLEGT, and the complete exclusion of forest biomass from the definition of renewable energy. It further emphasizes the need for the legal recognition of Indigenous Peoples' and local communities' tenure rights, the use of remote-sensing data for monitoring, and the inclusion of binding forest protection criteria in EU trade agreements.

• The current public consultation for the new EU Forest Strategy focuses too heavily on forests as economic commodities and fails to prioritize the preservation of forests and the minimization of human interference, particularly in primary forests.
• The new Strategy must be coherent with existing legal frameworks against illegal logging, specifically the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) and the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Regulation, to address global value chains and deforestation.
• Forest biomass should be excluded from the definition of renewable energy sources because burning wood contributes to increasing global temperatures and creates a loophole for Member States to meet climate targets without real emission reductions.
• The EU should establish support mechanisms for Indigenous Peoples and local communities to protect customary tenure rights and ensure they have a decision-making role in policies and trade agreements with high forest-cover regions like Indonesia and the MERCOSUR bloc.
• Wood certification schemes are insufficient to establish legal compliance and should not replace the due diligence obligations of industry players to ensure timber is not illegally harvested.
• The EU should adopt remote-sensing technology to provide accurate and comparable data for monitoring old-growth and primary forests, moving beyond the current reliance on sample-based forest inventories.
• Current forest management in some EU Member States, such as Romania, is criticized for superficial implementation of Forest Management Plans (FMPs) and limited public access to information.

APA

ClientEarth (2021). ClientEarth’s contribution to the public consultation on the new EU Forest Strategy. https://www.clientearth.org/media/b5ccwniv/2021-04-19-clientearths-contribution-to-the-public-consultation-on-the-new-eu-forest-strategy-ce-en.pdf

Chicago

ClientEarth. ClientEarth’s contribution to the public consultation on the new EU Forest Strategy. 2021. https://www.clientearth.org/media/b5ccwniv/2021-04-19-clientearths-contribution-to-the-public-consultation-on-the-new-eu-forest-strategy-ce-en.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=ClientEarth |title=ClientEarth’s contribution to the public consultation on the new EU Forest Strategy |date=April 2021 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/b5ccwniv/2021-04-19-clientearths-contribution-to-the-public-consultation-on-the-new-eu-forest-strategy-ce-en.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{clientearth2021clientearths, author = {{ClientEarth}}, title = {{ClientEarth’s contribution to the public consultation on the new EU Forest Strategy}}, publisher = {ClientEarth}, year = {2021}, month = apr, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/b5ccwniv/2021-04-19-clientearths-contribution-to-the-public-consultation-on-the-new-eu-forest-strategy-ce-en.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }