Caring for Forests Here and Abroad: The EU's Strategies for Sustainable Forest Ecosystems around the World

In late 2019, the new von der Leyen Commission proposed the European Green Deal (EGD), a package of initiatives with the aim of achieving climate neutrality by 2050. Among the measures put forward, the Commission insisted on the primordial role of forests, both inside and outside the boundaries of the European Union. Within the EU, the New Forest Strategy for 2030 aims to promote sustainable forest bioeconomy for long-lived wood products, ensure sustainable use of wood-based resources for bioenergy, promote non-wood forest-based bioeconomy, develop skills and empower people for sustainable forest-based bioeconomy, with the ultimate objective of protecting, restoring and enlarging resilient and multifunctional forest ecosystems in the Union. Beyond the frontiers of the Union, the Commission acknowledges, on the one hand, that forest degradation, including, notably, deforestation, remains a dire issue with, according to the FAO, more than 420 million hectares of forest lost around the world between 1990 and 2020, i.e. an area larger than the EU ; and on the other hand that, as the biggest importer of commodities linked to deforestation (in particular wood, cattle, soy, palm oil, coffee and cocoa) and with said consumption expected to steadily increase by more than 200,000 hectares of deforestation per year until 2030, the Union and its member states have a particular responsibility. The Commission thus submitted a proposal for a regulation on the making available on the Union market as well as export from the Union of certain commodities and products associated with deforestation and forest degradation and repealing Regulation (EU) No 995/2010 (hereafter Forest Risk Commodities Regulation Proposal). The contribution shall analyse the interplay between the Forest Strategy for 2030 and the Forest Risk Commodities Regulation Proposal, how they fit in the larger EGD framework to improve the quantity and quality of forests inside the EU and beyond. Concerning the latter, the contribution shall mention how the EU now implicitly makes use of the so-called Brussels Effect in order to incentivise an increase in the offer and trade of sustainable commodities and, conversely, a decrease in the risks for forests around the world