Öppet brev om svenska skogen till EU-kommissionen
The state of forests in Sweden is alarming. Even if there has been some positive development since the beginning of 1990s, we still face considerable sustainability challenges. Continuing with business-as-usual is therefore not an option.
Extract from our open letter to the European Commission about EU processes and forests:
To preserve biodiversity, the multifunctionality and resilience of European forests, our organizations (see below) are of the opinion that the EU-policies need to have binding frameworks based on scientific objective evidence that require member states to:
- Strictly protect all primary and old growth forests (OGF).
- Implement close to nature forestry (CNF).
- Restore degraded forest ecosystems, with binding restoration targets for forests integrated in the upcoming Nature Restoration Law.
- Create incentives for nature-based solutions to improve biodiversity and protect ecosystem carbon integrity.
- Develop reliable and transparent national systems of monitoring, evaluation and reporting of forest biodiversity and health, as foreseen in the new legislative proposal on EU Forest Observation, Reporting and Data Collection.
- Carry out transparent multi stakeholder science-based processes when member states address and develop EU policy compliance.
Signed by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC), Birdlife Sweden and WWF Sweden.
