Open letter from Director Marc Palahí, of the European Forest Institute. Forestry combating climate change: an inconvenient truth?

Director Marc Palahí, of the European Forest Institute recently released an open letter, Forestry combating climate change: an inconvenient truth? which provides  some science-based facts on EU forestry and climate change.

“For the last two years a heated debate has been ongoing in Europe on what is the best way to unlock the potential of our forests to fight climate change. The debate is not easy for several reasons:

1) The climate policy framework of Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) and how forests are included in it is complicated to understand. It is also complicated to communicate, and discuss with the policy makers responsible for deciding on it.

2) The debate has been hijacked by short-term and segregated approaches. These either emphasize the sink in the forest, or the products and bio-energy aspects of the mitigation, and forget long-term adaptation questions.

3) The spread of misinformation regarding the situation of European forests, and the potential of forestry to address the problem of climate change, has been growing.

In this context, I would like to share some important facts and reflections.”

Link to Open Letter

The European Forest Institute (EFI) is an international, non-partisan, scientific organization. It has 28 Member Countries, and 115 member organizations from 37 different countries working in diverse research fields. EFI provides forest-related knowledge around three interconnected and interdisciplinary themes: bioeconomy, resilience and governance.