Europe’s Old-Growth Forests: Are National Definitions Keeping Pace with Science?

Brussels Press Club & online | Sep 29 | 13:30–15:30 CET

Europe has only a limited amount of remaining old-growth forest. These forests are economically important, but they also provide critical habitats for numerous species and support biodiversity that cannot be replaced once lost. Their protection therefore requires a balance between ecological, economic and social considerations and must be based on sound science while being implemented in a socially just way.

Across the Nordic and Baltic countries, scientists have raised concerns that national definitions of old-growth forests do not always reflect the latest scientific understanding of these ecosystems. In some cases, forests that meet scientific criteria for old-growth status may remain outside protection and could be exposed to logging.

This raises a fundamental question for the European Union:

Can the EU deliver on its commitment to protect Europe’s remaining old-growth forests if Member States apply substantially different or less ambitious national criteria?

Against this backdrop, researchers from the Nordic and Baltic countries will present joint, science-based criteria for identifying and protecting old-growth forests in Northern Europe at a Brussels press event.

The scientific team brings together expertise from across the region, providing a cross-border scientific basis for identifying boreal old-growth forests.

From science to policy

The European Commission has stressed that Member States’ methodologies should be transparent, publicly available and science-based, enabling consistency across borders and objective verification.

Yet differences between scientific criteria and national implementation raise concerns about whether political and economic considerations may ultimately determine which forests qualify for protection.

The event will bring together perspectives from science, the European Commission, the European Parliament and forest owners to discuss how scientific evidence can shape policy and whether the EU has sufficient tools to ensure that its biodiversity commitments are implemented in practice.

Programme

13:30 – 13:53 – Science-Based Criteria for Forest Protection in Northern EU Regions
Mikko Mönkkönen, Professor of Applied Ecology, University of Jyväskylä; Lead of the Old-Growth Forests Working Group

13:53–14:00 – How does the EU deliver on its commitment to protect Europe’s remaining old-growth forests?

Ion Codescu, head of the land use & management unit in the department in charge of environment of the European Commission, acting director for biodiversity.

14:00–15:00 – Panel Discussion:
How Scientific Criteria Influence the European Commission, Policymaking, Industry and Forest Owners’ Practices

Ion Codescu, Acting Director, DG Environment, European Commission
Marko Mäki-Hakola, Copa-Cogeca / MTK
Katri Kulmuni, Member of the European Parliament
Bengt-Gunnar Jonsson, Professor, Mid Sweden University

15:00-15:30 Time for media to discuss with researchers

The event offers the public and journalists an opportunity to hear directly from the scientists behind a new Nordic-Baltic scientific framework for identifying old-growth forests, and to question policymakers and stakeholders about how science should shape the final decisions.

Read the article here: From guidelines to practice: Operational criteria for identifying old-growth forests in northern Europe | Ambio | Springer Nature Link

For more information, please contact: Interaction lead Sini Suomalainen, sini.p.suomalainen@jyu.fi

The ForTran and REBOUND projects are organizing the event in collaboration.

Follow the event online.

Sign up for the live event (limited seats)