13th meeting of CoU Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience

Expert Group on Forest Fires Co-Chaired between JRC and DG Environment Members coming from Member States and third Countries (41 countries in total) Contributes to the development of EFFIS and FISE Contributes to the annual forest fire report published by JRC

Expert Group on Forest Fires Two deliverables planned Technical report on basic criteria for wildfire risk assessment – published in January Guidance on land-based wildfire prevention scheduled for May

Preperatory project in LIFE Focusses on grazing to prevent forest fires Main grantee Rewilding Europe Project started in the beginning of 2019 Good coverage of different regions in Europe Should lead to policy recommendations on grazing to prevent forest fires

Study on the remote sensing of forests A tender was launched and potential contractors are selected The objective is to get a good overview of which remote sensing capabilities exist for forests Objective to launch the study beginning of 2019 and it should be ready at the end of the year

Close to Nature Forestry Integrating the different roles of forest Conserving Ecosystems Protecting soil and climate Production of Timber and other forest products Recreation, cultural role of forests

Close to Nature Forestry Permanent Tree cover Using mix-aged, mixed species stands Use as much as possible species native to the region Focus on high value wood and extraction methods that do not damage the soil or the rest of the trees Strengthen ecosystem services including Disaster and pest resilience Slovenia implements many close to nature forestry practices

EU Forest Strategy Adopted in 2013 to bring together the many policies affecting forests It is a framework to give a response to the increasing amount of demands to forests, which can be contradictory Evaluation by the Commission was conducted in 2018 Evaluation report was published in December and concluded that the Strategy is on track to deliver its goals by 2020

EU Forest Strategy Currently being discussed in the other institutions Council is planning to present its conclusions by April at the forest conference organised by Commissioner Hogan No date yet for the response of the European Parliament EESC position expected in autumn and the CoR is finalizing their response at the moment

Questions?