Forests: A Multi-sectoral and Multi-level Approach to Sustainable Forest Management

Abstract

The chapter evaluates and explains the effectiveness of the external action of the EU on forests. Despite its lack of competence on forests, the EU seeks to promote sustainable forest management through various policies and measures. Some are explicitly focused on forests, such as the EU’s participation in the United Nations Forum on Forests, while others rely on related fields to achieve sustainable forest management, such as the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Voluntary Partnership Agreements. The various external forest policies of the EU are characterised by varying levels of effectiveness. Despite the EU’s effort to create synergies and complementarities between them, different objectives are not always reconciled and EU external forest policies remain incoherent.