Action plan to boost competitiveness of European forestry industry[fr] 

One of the main challenges of forestry policy is to find the right balance between the different functions forests provide for society (the "multifunctionality" of forestry). Next to its economic function as a source of timber or wood for furniture, paper, paperboard or energy (biomass), forests provide important ecological functions (biodiversity, protection of water and soil, climate change mitigation) and social functions (recreational services, tourism).

Another aspect of forestry policy is that it touches on several other policy areas, such as rural development policy, environment and energy policy, industrial and R&D policy or development and trade policy.

The EU's forestry industry is facing several challenges as a result of globalisation:

• competition with lower-cost producers in developing countries;
• illegal logging
• stronger demand for forest products and services
• climate change
• environmental degradation.

The five-year (2007-2011) Action Plan tries to find answers to these complex challenges and has four main objectives:

• improve the long-term competitiveness of the forestry sector;
• protect the environment;
• contribute to the quality of life;
• and foster coordination and communication on these issues.

The Action Plan defines a framework of eighteen key actions, which should be implemented at EU and Member State level. Most of these actions are very general ("examine the effects of globalisation on the ... competitiveness of EU forestry" or "enhance protection of EU forests") or reformulate policy actions that had already been defined elsewhere ("promote the use of forest biomass for energy generation").

In a first reaction, Kevin Bradley of the Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment (ACE) expressed his support for the ojectives of the Action Plan. He did, however, raise questions about measures to increase the use of forest resources for energy production. "ACE warns that this should be encouraged only so long as it does not disrupt the economic equilibrium to the detriment of the forest's other roles - in particular, its importance for biodiversity, countering climate change and supplying wood and paper products", Bradley stated.

Saskia Ozinga of FERN, the Forests and the European Union Resource Network, said her organisation was disappointed with the vagueness of the 18 actions proposed. "Some of them are not even new", she said. She also pointed to the difficulties to balance the economic, ecological and social functions of forests, something which the Court of Auditors also mentioned in a special report on Forestry Measures within Rural Development Policy in 2004.

CEPI, the Confederation of the European Paper Industries, claims to be the "one of the most competitive and sustainable in Europe today," but it guards against the EU placing too much focus on forests as a source of bioenergy. "The value of using wood primarily for energy must be balanced with the value of existing and important contribution wood makes to the environment and the economy when it is used first as a raw material," said CEPI managing director Teresa Presas.