The importance of EU forests for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services

Clunie Keenleyside - Institute for European Environmental Policy

Europe’s forests occupy 42% of the EU-27 land area, providing vital ‘non-market’ ecosystem services such as the protection of soil and water resources and the storage and sequestration of carbon, all underpinned by forest biodiversity. There are many objectives of forest management, from intensive timber production to nature conservation, but more effort is needed to halt biodiversity loss, with only 14% of the 170 forest species of European importance in favourable condition. Forestry is a long-term activity and there will be some difficult trade-off decisions to be made about managing forests for ecosystem services, for example between increasing forest carbon stores and harvesting more biomass for energy production. The potential contribution of Europe’s forests to achieving shared EU environmental, social and economic objectives for rural areas deserves much wider recognition, and has a key place in the coming debate about CAP reform