Regional Programmes: Europe

Working for forests from Casablanca to Vladivostok

Europe has over a quarter of the world's forests. Even though over half of Europe's original forest cover has disappeared, there are still amazingly rich forests left - from the spruce forests of Scandinavia and the vast pine forests in Russia to the chestnut rainforests of the Caucasus and the cork oak forests in the Mediterranean. Some are home to wild species such as elk, bison, wolf , bear and lynx.

The European Forest Programme's (EFP) work spans the entire Eurasian continent and therefore plays a significant role in the WWF global Forests Programme. The EFP contributes to the global forest targets by focusing on a number of Priority Ecoregions and on key issues to:

• Identify and protect High Conservation Value Forests: WWF provides guidelines for the identification of forests of outstanding and critical importance due to their environmental, socio-economic, biodiversity or landscape values. WWF also assists in the management of these high conservation value forests.
  

• Establish Protected Area Networks
  
  
• Establish PAN Parks : Most of the existing protected areas also need better management. There are promising ways to improve the management of protected areas - nature-friendly tourism is one of them. Through its PAN Parks initiative, WWF aims to develop standards for national park management and sustainable tourism. It is being put into practice in selected European countries.
  
  
• Prevent Illegal Logging: WWF promotes improved transparency and enforcement of laws to stop illegal logging and forest crime . This includes independent monitoring and auditing schemes such as that provided by the Forest Stewardship Council for forest management and tracking wood products from the forest to the end user.
  
  
• Create Forest and Trade Networks to promote responsible timber management and trade: WWF works with more than 500 corporate partners in the Global Forest and Trade Network worldwide to promote responsible forest management and trade.
  
  
• Promote credible forest certification such as the Forest Stewardship Council certification system as an effective market based tool to lead to greater recognition of environmentally and socially sound wood products. Forest certification has engaged producers, consumers and retailers in a positive effort to help clean up the timber industry. It has also strengthened a global debate on the future of forestry. Europe has been an important driver for FSC certification worldwide.
  
  
• Promote the sustainable use of non-timber forest products
  
  
• Set a best practice example with Model Forests
  
  
• Encourage corporate responsibility
  
  
• Promote conservation through democracy
  
  
• Lobbying for responsible forest management and protection in fora such as the UN Forum on Forests, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the International Tropical Timber Organisation etc
  

A selection of key forest publications is listed on the right, a wider range of forest publications are also available on this site.

WWF European Forest Staff
To achieve all of the above the organization relies on the commitment and skills of 80 WWF forest staff in 29 European countries and a network of partnerships in Ireland, Morocco, Portugal, Croatia, Holland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Romania and many other countries.