In the pan-European region, forest policy has been a matter of national responsibility and sovereignty. However, the trans-boundary importance and the multiple functions of forests require strong cooperation between countries. The European forest sector is endowed with a rich infrastructure of institutional frameworks and processes, which operate at the regional or sub-regional levels and contribute to forest policy development and implementation.
Working together regionally
Regional cooperation plays a vital role for countries to enhance and further develop their forest governance and to cope with specific trans-boundary challenges. Encompassing the whole of Europe, FOREST EUROPE is a successful model for cross-border cooperation throughout an entire continent. It develops common guidelines for its 46 member countries and the European Union on how to protect and sustainably manage the region's forests.
Pan-European cooperation is particularly important with regard to forest issues such as forest fires, forest insects and diseases, and forest product trade across national boundaries. Furthermore, countries can improve their knowledge and capacity for action and create synergies by sharing information, experience and expertise, e.g. through research networks and policy deliberations.
Regional cooperation is also an important instrument for enhanced implementation of global commitments and the achievement of global objectives. FOREST EUROPE contributes to the achievement of globally agreed goals related to climate change and biodiversity, the UN Millennium Development Goals and the shared Global Objectives on Forests agreed by the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF).
En route to achieving the global commitments of the Rio Conventions
The FOREST EUROPE signatory states have committed themselves to contribute to the achievement of the ultimate objectives of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol. These goals are to be achieved through sustainable forest management, carbon stock maintenance, enhanced carbon sequestration in European forests, and a broad range of mitigation and adaptation measures.
It is also a major goal of FOREST EUROPE countries to maintain, conserve, and enhance forest biological diversity. They have committed themselves to contribute to the achievement of the 2010 Biodiversity Targets on halting the loss of biodiversity world wide and the implementation of relevant work programmes of the Convention on Biologial Diversity (CBD) through effective sustainable forest management. The CBD has recognised that the concept of sustainable forest management as defined and developed by FOREST EUROPE is consistent with the application of the ecosystem approach (as defined by the CBD) to forests in the pan-European region.
FOREST EUROPE works towards strengthening the collaboration with the United Nations Convention on Combating Desertification (UNCCD) to enhance the role of forests in combating desertification and flooding.
Contributing to the Non-legally Binding Instrument on all Types of Forests (NLBI) of the UNFF
The FOREST EUROPE signatory states and the European Union have committed themselves to contribute to achieving the Four Global Objectives on Forests, the implementation of the Non-legally Binding Instrument on all Types of Forests (NLBI) and the Multi-Year Programme of Work of the UNFF for 2007–2015.
The main purpose of the NLBI is to strengthen the political commitment and action at all levels to effectively implement sustainable management of all types of forests and to achieve the shared global objectives on forests. FOREST EUROPE contributes substantially to the implementation of the NLBI commitments through its ministerial declarations and resolutions.
The role of the pan-European forest cooperation in globally promoting sustainable forest management and sustainable development is documented in a report prepared by European forest entities as a contribution to the UNFF deliberations. The report has been prepared by FOREST EUROPE in cooperation with the UNECE Timber Committee and the FAO European Forestry Commission (UNECE/FAO), the European Forest Institute (EFI), and the Environment for Europe/Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy (EfE/PEBLDS). The report presents a summary of pan-European achievements, major developments, challenges and plans for future actions for sustainable forest management in relation to issues addressed at the eighth session of the UNFF held in 2009.
