OptFor-EU is a 4-year European Project to support EU forests in their capacity to mitigate and adapt to climate change. The consortium, where ENT participates, recently published a comprehensive set of policy recommendations aimed at boosting the resilience of Europe’s forests and transforming their value chains in the face of climate change and rising socio-economic pressures.
The proposals identify institutional fragmentation, policy overlap, and governance inefficiencies as the biggest obstacles currently slowing progress. Forest and agricultural policies, in particular, are noted to often operate in silos—hindering integrated climate mitigation and adaptation strategies. Their core recommendations include an integrated forestry policy design at national level, strengthen the coordination acorss governance layers, enhance the funding and staekholder participation.
Within Spanish context, the findings reveal that Spanish forestry policy is still too often fragmented between national and regional authorities. This division makes it difficult to coordinate measures that could prevent forest degradation and improve the country’s resilience to climate risks such as droughts, wildfires, and pests—threats that have intensified dramatically over the past decade. According to the OptFor-EU experts, better coordination between institutions would allow Spain to move beyond reactive crisis management and instead pursue long-term planning that places forests at the centre of climate action.
The full set of recommendations, including a policy brief, interim report, and infographic, is available through the OptFor-EU website (optforeu.eu), offering policymakers a concrete roadmap to make forests a cornerstone of climate resilience and sustainable development.