Forests play a vital role in climate change adaptation and mitigation. They act as carbon sinks and preserve biodiversity and ecosystems. Yet, climate change is increasingly causing extreme weather conditions, and damages such as wildfires, windstorms and floods are harming forests all over Europe.

To address these challenges, the European Commission introduced the Forest Monitoring Law in November 2023, a regulation on a monitoring framework for resilient European forests. This proposal is part of the EU forest strategy for 2030, which seeks to strengthen the protection, restoration and resilience of forests in the EU.

More resilient and diverse forests are essential to cope better with environmental disturbances and to adapt to climate change. This strategy also calls for adequate monitoring of EU forests to help forest owners and managers adjust management practices to forest disturbances.

While stakeholders generally support this proposal, some find it vague and call for stronger initiatives to achieve forest resilience. They also highlight the need for other key indicators to track forest evolution, and for a more unified monitoring framework across EU member states.

Listen to this Euractiv Virtual Conference to discuss how to make EU forests more resilient against climate change and disturbances. Questions to be addressed include:

- In the framework of the Forest Monitoring Law proposal, how can we guarantee effective strategic planning and progress monitoring at the EU level?
- What support mechanisms are available to assist forest owners and managers in implementing resilience-building measures? How can their forests remain economically viable?
- To what extent can the EU harmonise forest resilience management in its member states?

Life Terra is co-financed by the European Commission through the LIFE Programme (LIFE19 CCM/NL/001200).

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