Societal expectations towards EU forests
Our team explored the European public’s views on forests, forestry, and the forest-based sector. They examined the importance of various forest ecosystem services (FES) at different sociopsychological levels, while also analyzing spatial and temporal effects on these preferences.
Key takeaways include:
- Across Europe, people care about the provision of multiple FES, with a stronger emphasis on cultural and regulating services over provisioning services.
- From a societal perspective, provisioning services are valued higher than from a personal perspective.
- People across Europe believe that all FES will become more important in the future.
- Respondents consider carbon storage, biodiversity, wood provision, and recreational opportunities as very important in EU policies.
- Afforestation is viewed mostly positively across Europe.
- Most respondents agree that wood utilization in buildings should increase, recognizing its advantages over other materials.
- There is a slight negative perception of bioenergy’s role in solving the climate crisis.
- There is large heterogeneity within and between countries regarding whether wood production can be done in a way that simultaneously protects the environment.