On 21-22 March 202, EUSTAFOR’s Member Hercegbosanska šume d.o.o. Kupres (HBS) and the Croatian Wood Cluster organized the 9th edition of the Central Conference on the Forest-based Sector in the Balkan Region under the name KUPRES 2024 – Modernization of Forestry in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Conference also contributed to the celebrations of the International Day of Forests, declared by the UN in 2012. Possibilities of financing the forestry sector and the wood industry from EU funds, the harmonization of EU and Bosnian policies in the field of forestry, and the application of new technologi ..read more

The 2nd International Stakeholders and Donors Conference took place on 26-27 March 2024 in Prague, Czech Republic. The event was hosted by the Czech Ministry of Agriculture of the Government and the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Science of the Czech University, and was facilitated by FAO Ukraine. More than 60 participants from European countries, international organizations and stakeholders participated in the event in person and online. The main objective is to continue dialogue with partners and foster their engagement in supporting Ukraine’s forestry sector in their efforts of incr ..read more

This Wednesday, 24 April, the Parliament has voted on the files for Plant and Forest Reproductive Material (PRM & FRM). The latter has direct impact on the forest sector and EUSTAFOR has actively contributed to the legislative process with input. The report has now been adopted as its first reading position with a large majority. The accepted position proposes cooperation of Member States to secure high quality forest reproductive material, with a labeling system in place to provide transparency about the origins and quality standards. The material must be traceable from collection to mark ..read more

On 2 April the EP Intergroup Roundtable event on Forest Monitoring was hosted by the rapporteur MEP Juozas Olekas (S&D, Lithuania) and MEP Michaela Šojdrová (EPP, Czech Republic). Member State representatives and stakeholders from nature NGOs, the forest sector and -industry were present, as well as several senior policy makers from the Commission, most notably Ion Codescu (Head of Unit on ‘Land Use and Management’). Kristi Parro (RMK) was spaeking on EUSTAFOR’s behalf. The meeting started with opening remarks from Olekas, after which all attendees had the opportunity to make their stateme ..read more

FAM (Foundation Asset Management AB), which is owned by the three largest Wallenberg Foundations, commissioned a report from AFRY (AFRY AB, a Swedish supplier of engineering, design, and advisory services) to estimate the material substitution potential in the EU forest industry. The report was published on April 9th with the header “Substitution potential and climate impact in the EU forest value chain”. According to the report, forest products already contribute a climate benefit equivalent to the emissions of 50 million EU citizens. This climate benefit comes from what is known as the ..read more

EUSTAFOR is delighted to announce our new associate Ann-Mari Kuparinen from Metsähallitus, Finnish State Forests. She joined our team in the beginning of April and will work in Forestry House until February 2025. Ann-Mari graduated with MSc of Agriculture & Forestry from Joensuu University. Before that she obtained a BSc of Forestry in Rovaniemi Polytechnic. Ann-Mari has worked for Metsähallitus, the Finnish State Forest Organization, for the last 14 years, during which she has gained experience in several positions from forestry planning to timber logistics and land-use management. For th ..read more

During a plenary meeting held on 10 April, the European Parliament adopted the provisional agreement on a Regulation laying down an EU-wide voluntary framework to certify carbon removals as its first reading position on the file, with 441 votes in favour, 139 votes against and 41 abstentions. The European Parliament issued a press release following the adoption of its first reading position. Key takeaways: (i) quality criteria requiring that certifiable activities are quantifiable pursuant to a specific formula and accompanying rules for each activity, additional considering EU and national re ..read more

This week the New European Bauhaus Festival takes place in Brussels, with satellite event all over Europe. This event was organized to promote the New European Bauhaus initiative, which aims at accelerating the transformation of various economic sectors such as construction and textiles in order to provide access to all citizens to goods that are circular and less carbon intensive. An important element of this is of course the use of forest material as the basis of many products. Therefore, EUSTAFOR is proud to present a new video on how our state forests supply the European bioeconomy with su ..read more

On 20 April 2024, the Circular Choices alliance organized its event under the Belgian Presidency. The event’s central theme was EU competitiveness and how an innovative circular bioeconomy sector is contributing to the open strategic autonomy in Europe. After an opening statement by Mr Jérôme Noël, the General Delegate for Wallonia-Brussels to the EU, there were several presentations on case studies. One of the presentations was by Mr Gary Healy from Coillte, who is also Chairman of EUSTAFOR’s Advocacy Group. He presented the results of a study by Anna Kleissner on the economic impact of the b ..read more

On 20 April 2024, the Commission released the communication on their new Biotechnology & Biotechnology initiative. The document gives an overview of the current impact of biotechnology on the European economy and what the challenges are for the EU to remain competitive on the global market. Although forests and forestry are mentioned a few times in the document, it seems clear that the intended scope is very broad and that our sector plays only a minor role in the initiative. The initiative focuses mainly on innovative applications of wood components, algae, enzymes and other bioproducts t ..read more