The European Court of Auditors finds that the European Union has used far too little money from the CAP Rural Development Fund in recent years to restore European forests.
Almost all the funds went to forest management and planting, with hardly any going towards remedying backlogs. There was also little progress on restoring biodiversity in forest areas.
Funding for forest areas is much lower than for agriculture, even though the area covered by forest is roughly the same size as the land used for agriculture. Less than 1% of the CAP budget is available for forestry.
The European Court of Auditors (ECA) reviewed the balance of the EU forest strategy and key policy measures for the period 2014–2020. Although forested areas have grown over the past thirty years, the condition of the forests is deteriorating.
The Court of Auditors believes the European Commission could have taken stronger measures to protect the forests. While the EU Timber Regulation prohibits the placing on the market of illegally harvested wood and products made from such wood, EU countries do far too little to enforce this. Effective checks are often lacking, including from the Commission itself.
The EU has signed and ratified various international agreements and must therefore observe several targets for biodiversity in forests. An EU report on the state of European forests from last year already concluded that the condition of Europe’s forests is declining.