Funding resilient forests: Rethinking EU and State subsidies
9 July 2025
This report by Metodi Sotirov, Assistant Professor in Forest and Environmental Policy at the University of Freiburg, looks at the current state of EU forest financing and what needs to change to deliver a just transition to a socially, environmentally and economically resilient forest industry that adds value to rural communities.
Public funding is undoubtedly necessary. Many forest owners, particularly in smaller or private forests, lack the financial resources to move from clear-cutting to closer-to-nature methods, even though they would be more economically stable in the long term.
This report answers the all-important financial questions: How much? From where? And for what? It finds that:
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To transition Europe’s forests towards closer-to-nature forestry, an estimated €2.5 billion/year is needed directly for foresters.
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When adding research and development, forest restoration in protected areas, capacity building and training, this figure rises to €5 billion per year until 2050.
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This money already exists - €5.8 billion/year in harmful subsidies have been identified that are weakening forest resilience and supporting production of economically and ecologically low-value products (such as paper packaging and bioenergy). Such subsidies are also hard for small forest actors to access.
Now is the time to phase out and redirect harmful subsidies and other EU and Member State funding so that it supports biodiversity-positive and climate-resilient forest management practices that benefit private and communal forest owners and the rural forest sector.
Categories: Reports, European forests
