Review of the EU Forest Strategy for 2030: an opportunity to rebalance, deliver and strengthen resilience on the ground

05 / 01 / 2026

In 2025, the European Commission launched the mid-term review of the EU Forest Strategy for 2030, a step foreseen since its adoption. This review comes at a particularly sensitive moment: Europe’s geopolitical, energy and industrial context is no longer the same as in 2021, and the pressure of climate change on forests (droughts, fires, pests and diseases) is intensifying, particularly in southern Europe. In this context, the review must serve to adjust the course and ensure that the strategy is workable, effective and socially sustainable, without discouraging those who manage the land.

The very dynamics of the review reflect this reality: on 10 December 2025, the Commission brought together the Standing Forestry Committee, the Forest and Forestry Stakeholder Platform (of which the USSE is a member) and the Forest Biodiversity Subgroup to discuss progress, obstacles, new perspectives (including data) and the need for additional action.

What the strategy has put on the table—and what its implementation reveals

The EU Forest Strategy for 2030 was designed to improve both the quantity and quality of forests, strengthen their protection, restoration and resilience, and contribute to climate and biodiversity objectives. In doing so, it placed forests firmly at the forefront of the European political agenda and encouraged initiatives on data, monitoring and coherence with other Green Deal policies.

However, its implementation has also revealed tensions: perceptions of an “administrative burden”, duplication with national systems and the limits of a “one-size-fits-all” approach have emerged clearly.

A recent and highly illustrative example is the evolution of the proposed “forest monitoring” legislation mentioned above, which the European Parliament ultimately rejected in 2025, citing concerns over duplication and bureaucracy.

The imbalance between the three pillars of sustainability: the critical issue to address

In practice, the strategy has prioritised the environmental pillar of sustainability, while the economic and social components have been insufficiently integrated and regional specificities inadequately taken into account.

This imbalance has consequences: reduced incentives to invest in forestry, a diminished capacity to mobilise wood and biomass sustainably, and lost employment opportunities in rural areas and the bioeconomy.

Indeed, it must be recognised that if European policies discourage investment and active management, the result will not be “more nature”, but rather more abandonment, more accumulated fuel and greater vulnerability to extreme events. In the regions of southern Europe where USSE partners are located, this translates directly into higher risk and greater intensity of large-scale wildfires, precisely due to the combination of extreme climatic conditions and territorial factors such as forest and agricultural abandonment.

The revision of the strategy is therefore an opportunity to “reconnect” biodiversity and climate objectives with the economic viability of multifunctional forest management. In other words, if we want resilient forests, we need resilient owners and managers.

Alignment with a circular bioeconomy based on local wood and cohesive value chains

The revision should align with the Commission’s new Bioeconomy Strategy, published on 27 November 2025, which explicitly aims to boost competitiveness, innovation and markets for bio-based materials, while addressing the sustainability of biomass supply. For southern Europe, this means supporting the sustainable mobilisation of wood (and other products such as cork or resin), strengthening associative structures, and reconnecting forest owners with the rest of the value chain (industry, construction and green chemistry).

Conclusion: a revision designed to “make it work” with those who sustain forests

The revision of the EU Forest Strategy for 2030 should not be limited to measuring progress; it must correct incentives and ensure genuine coherence with realities on the ground and the 2025–2030 context. If Europe wants more resilient, more biodiverse and more climate-resilient forests, it needs a strategy that balances environmental, economic and social dimensions, respects territorial diversity, and turns forest owners into active partners rather than passive recipients of new burdens.

Back to News list