Meeting the European Union’s Forest Strategy goals: A comparative European assessment. From Science to Policy n. 15.

The new EU Forest Strategy for 2030, adopted in July 2021, has become more concrete and comprehensive in its vision with respct to previous strategies and tries to tie in different objectives of the plethora of EU forest-related policies (such as e.g., bioeconomy, biodiversity, climate change). The implementation of the new EU Forest Strategy and meeting its goals has therefore potentially larger implications for national authorities than earlier ones, through its stronger embedding in the overall political framework of the EU, al- though the Strategy as such is not legally binding. This study assesses whether and to what extent national and regional policy developments meet the EU Forest Strategy goals. It analyses those policies in 15 countries in and outside the EU, as well as in three regions in Spain. The countries are: Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Norway. Communalities and differences are explored, and policy recommendations formulated. The study is based on a combination of secondary and primary data collection (literature review, content analysis of selected policy documents and laws, semi-structured interviews to national level experts).