Source: European Parliament
Question for written answer E-001628/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Katri Kulmuni (Renew)
In July 2023, the Commission published voluntary guidelines on ‘closer-to-nature’ forest management. The guidelines state: ‘The text might not necessarily reflect the views of all the listed individual authorities and organisations since it includes compromise drafting for areas on which views in the group significantly diverged’.
The guidelines do not represent a consensus-based agreement on closer-to-nature forest management practices and should not be referenced or incorporated in EU legislation, and do not sufficiently account for the diversity of forest types and forest management approaches across the Member States. They largely promote continuous cover forestry, which does not necessarily support carbon sequestration in all forest types.
According to the EU forest strategy, the Commission will develop a voluntary certification scheme based on these guidelines.
- 1.What is the current status of the development of this scheme, and what specific need is it intended to address?
- 2.Will the Commission link this initiative to the Carbon Removal Certification Framework or the development of nature credits?
- 3.How will the Commission ensure that the ‘closer-to-nature’ forest management guidelines – which do not represent the views of all contributing authorities and organisations – remain entirely voluntary and are not incorporated into EU legislation or legally binding EU frameworks as such?
Submitted: 23.4.2025