CEI-Bois & EOS welcome the new EU forest strategy passed on Tuesday (September 13) by the European Parliament.

‘A new EU Forest Strategy for 2030 – Sustainable Forest Management in Europe’ is clear in its recognition of the ability of wood products to both store carbon and substitute for more carbon intensive materials, CEI-Bois & EOS say in a common press release. At the same time these wood products are both renewable and recyclable.

CEI-Bois & EOS particularly welcome the recognition that “wood is the only significant natural renewable resource that has the potential to replace some very energy-intensive materials, such as cement and plastics, and will be in greater demand in the future”.

The new strategy is right to acknowledge there are concerns around a reliable and sustainable wood supply, a situation exacerbated by Russia’s war on Ukraine, hence - like the Parliament - the CEI-Bois & EOS believe that locally and sustainably produced wood will be needed to meet this demand.

In addition the new forest strategy rightly acknowledges wood’s important role in helping deliver the wider bioeconomy. However wood can only make its “optimal contribution to the circular economy and climate-neutrality” if there are “strong incentives to innovate in the fields of bio-based materials and fuels that replace fossil-based ones”.

In welcoming this report Sampsa Auvinen, chair of CEI-Bois, noted: “It is very good to see that the EU Parliament has recognised the central role that the European wood working industries can play in helping deliver the Green Deal, in particular wood’s notable ability to both store carbon in the built environment and to substitute for other construction materials that have a very high carbon footprint.”

Herbert Joebstl, President of EOS, added, “Members States should now create the right conditions to boost the entire sustainable forest bioeconomy and fully recognise the positive EU climate-change mitigation effects of increased carbon storage in harvested wood products and material substitution from increased wood construction”.