Wild Europe’s Zoltan Kun, as the representative of the FORbEST project, was invited as a panellist to the final conference of the PathFinder Horizon Project. The event explored the challenges and opportunities to improve forest monitoring throughout Europe. While the European Parliament rejected the concept of the EU Forest Monitoring Law, increased knowledge about our forests is necessary for implementing biodiversity and climate related legislation. The EU Horizon Europe scheme hence supports various research consortiums, including FORbEST that also includes forest monitoring improvements through WP3, to contribute to this process.
The European Parliament rejected the Forest Monitoring Law largely due to concerns about the principle of subsidiarity, duplication with existing National Forest Inventories (NFIs), increased reporting obligations, regulatory burden for Member States and forest owners, data governance and potential risks regarding sensitive property information. Critics also questioned whether a Regulation is the appropriate instrument to achieve harmonised forest monitoring across highly diverse national forest systems.
PathFinder looked into how different data sources—field measurements, National Forest Inventories, International Co-operative Programme on Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forests (ICP Forests) observations, remote sensing, scenario modelling and stakeholder knowledge—can be combined to better understand forest carbon, biodiversity, and future management options. The PathFinder project recognised that the revised EU Land Use Land Use Cover and Forestry (LULUCF) framework significantly increases expectations for carbon removals from land use and forestry, moving from the 2021–2025 “no-debit rule” to a more ambitious system with binding national targets and an EU-wide goal of 310 MtCO₂e net removals by 2030. Beyond biodiversity monitoring, this carbon removal commitment also calls for improving forest monitoring enabling verification.
During the event, panellists including the representative of Wild Europe as a FORbEST consortium member discussed the following questions:
- What economic, governance, and implementation challenges do you foresee for future forest monitoring, for example, in relation to the concept developed in PathFinder?
- How can the EU balance carbon sequestration and long-term carbon removal targets with biodiversity protection, climate adaptation, timber production, rural development, and a competitive bioeconomy, while accounting for growing risks from wildfires, droughts, pests, and storms?
- What should be the key priorities for the next phase of the European forest strategy?
Panellists concluded that the introduction of a harmonised forest monitoring system, which improves knowledge about our forests and enables data transparency – while taking into account privacy concerns of private forest owners -, is unavoidable. There are many existing EU legislation that can benefit from harmonising and improving forest monitoring. Therefore, the European Commission and Member States should continue negotiating about the introduction of a European forest monitoring system. This should be a key element of the ongoing mid-term review of the EU Forest Strategy for 2030.
The Pathfinder project developed various policy recommendations in order to promote the introduction of a European Forest Monitoring System (EFMS). A key proposal is to develop the EFMS jointly through funding by the European Union and Member States. The EU should provide initial setup costs and ongoing support for the central coordination and data analysis platform. Member States will then be responsible for funding their national data collection efforts, with additional EU support available for countries establishing new systems.
FORbEST can benefit from integrating the outcomes of PathFinder and its sister projects. Wild Europe suggested considering a monitoring scheme for forest funding (MSFF). This proposal will still embed biodiversity and climate-related objectives resonating the forest monitoring law, with funding addressed to a full array of ecosystem services as a means to an end that could remain supported by policy framework.
Our representation at the event helped to guarantee that our consortium is properly linked to the most updated research results and policy developments in Europe.
Useful links
The PathFinder project website https://pathfinder-heu.eu/
Policy recommendations https://pathfinder-heu.eu/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/PathFinder-Policy-Brief-1.pdf
Its sister projects are
- ForestNavigator https://www.forestnavigator.eu/
- ForestPath https://forestpaths.eu/