With reference to the ongoing discussions initiated by the European Commission regarding “primary forests” and “nature-based” forestry, in the context of the European Union (EU) Biodiversity Strategy goals for the new EU Forest Strategy and information received from our partners in Europe, the Forest Certification Council of Latvia (LMSP) calls on forestry and related sector organisations, companies and partners to intensify their involvement in matters affecting forest and related sector policies.

Discussions held to date by various interest groups demonstrate a high risk that public and private Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) will be regulated and pre-determined by individuals with no connection to the forest sector, as has already happened repeatedly in Latvia, where forest and related sector organisations, companies and partners are invited to provide feedback and comments on almost finished draft documents.

We must act more actively now, by very specifically stating: what we need and what we expect.

Everyday forest management cannot be discussed or defined using general terms such as “nature-based” and “primary forests”. The use of such words and phrases fails to recognise the importance of the entire value chain – from sustainable forest management to downstream, timber-based markets, through which a very large number of people in Europe (and Latvia) directly and indirectly earn their living. Policymakers in the European Union and Latvia must be aware of the significant financial volume generated by the forest and the forest-resource-based value chain.

Rhetoric that ignores the well-established and stable forest management sector, properly functioning governance, and forest policy development does not contribute to an understanding of the entire forest-resource-based industry. This includes a blatant disregard for the economic significance of sustainable forest management. The economic importance of value creation is being diminished. This situation is exacerbated by the lack of legal acts (tools) in the EU regarding sustainable forest management.

It must be emphasised that forest sector organisations, both in the EU and in Latvia, play a vital role in delivering the volume of timber necessary to ensure a successful bioeconomy. Without timber production, the bioeconomy, as an essential element of the European Green Deal, will be unsuccessful and fail to meet its potential.

If the EU and its institutions plan to set legally binding SFM standards, this can only be done on the basis of a legitimate and legally binding instrument. Forest owners and managers have so far only been informed about various policy impacts on daily management practices and may become hostages of the situation. This completely unacceptable situation incorrectly reflects and ignores the fact that forest owners and managers are not just stakeholders, as representatives of the forest sector, but are truly indispensable elements of the system that create the conditions for a successful forest-related policy.

The current practice of defining and constantly restricting the value-creating forest sector through other policy areas, such as the “Biodiversity Strategy” and directives on “nature protection”, is unacceptable. This style of forest-related policy-making threatens the work planning processes and the overall existence of forest owners, timber processors and forest managers. The potential negative socio-economic impact in Latvia could affect at least 80,000 people working in the forest and related sectors. A sharp deterioration in the situation for workers will have a devastating impact on the national economy as a whole. Politicians responsible for the forest sector in each European Union member state must also be fully aware of the concerns expressed by forest owner and manager organisations. These concerns must be taken into account when forming national positions. Constant negative impacts on sustainable forest management (SFM) must be avoided in favour of creating a legitimate legal tool in which the entire system and all SFM elements ensure both the start and the continuation of forest-related policy development.

Unfortunately, some current EU proposals negate the essence of sustainable forest management, which has been working in Europe for decades. This creates a risk of artificially disrupting the balance between the three pillars of sustainability – economic, environmental and social. Such an approach could lead to the destabilisation of the entire forest sector. It must be clearly stated that sustainable forest management guarantees biologically diverse forest ecosystems.

The claim that less active or inactive sustainable forest management will promote biodiversity is completely incorrect.

Scientific evidence shows that actively managed forests provide a high degree of biodiversity while simultaneously providing all other forest ecosystem services.

Forest sector organisations, based on forest science, can explain proven methods:

How to deal with the impact of climate change and the related future changes needed to ensure a viable composition of tree species;

How natural regeneration and genetic diversity support continuous and nature-based forest areas;

How various national forest strategies integrate all stakeholder interests and formulate, evaluate and, based on defined indicators, control all agreed goals, measures and resources to obtain a modern and interest-balanced forest strategy.

In the future, forest management must not involve continuously leaving additional forest areas unmanaged. It follows that the future duty of the forest sector is not just providing comments on all activities and documents related to forestry. There is currently an urgent need for an appropriate legal and political framework for SFM.

LMSP calls on forestry and related sector organisations, companies and partners to actively approach decision-makers and discuss the above-mentioned issues with them. If this is not done, the concepts of “primary forests” and “nature-based” as well as non-forestry individuals will radically and adversely affect how our organisations are able to implement forest management on a daily basis.

We call for active action now and support those partners who have begun to act to defend the interests of the forest sector.

The Forest Certification Council of Latvia (LMSP) is one of the largest non-governmental organisations in Latvia. The LMSP is composed of 32 organisations, companies and individual members, including representatives of 1.9 million hectares of Latvian forest managers, 2 certification bodies, 2 universities, the “Silava” Forest Research Institute, trade unions, and environmental and social non-governmental organisations, altogether representing more than 25,000 residents of Latvia. Since 2001, the Forest Certification Council of Latvia has been creating and maintaining an understanding in Latvian society of sustainable forestry that meets its interests, is environmentally friendly, socially responsible and economically sound, while at the same time not restricting the rights of landowners as set out in the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia.