Launch of the State of Europe’s Forests 2025 (SoEF 2025): a key milestone for Europe’s forests
By Martin Fillot, AIFM
On 27 March 2026, the State of Europe’s Forests 2025 (SoEF 2025) was officially released, marking a major milestone for forest-related knowledge and policy in Europe. As the flagship report of the FOREST EUROPE process, this new edition provides a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the condition and trends of forests across the continent.
Bringing together the latest available data from 45 signatory countries, the report offers a robust evidence base to support decision-making and strengthen sustainable forest management in a rapidly changing context.
What is FOREST EUROPE?
FOREST EUROPE is the Ministerial Process on the Protection of Forests in Europe. It provides a high-level policy platform where countries collaborate to promote the sustainable management of forests across the pan-European region.
Since the 1990s, the process has contributed to developing a shared understanding of Sustainable Forest Management (SFM), shaping national forest policies and fostering cooperation among countries and stakeholders.
What is the State of Europe’s Forests (SoEF)?
The State of Europe’s Forests (SoEF) is the flagship report of FOREST EUROPE, published every five years since 2003. It monitors progress towards sustainable forest management using a common set of criteria and indicators agreed at the pan-European level.
The SoEF combines data from national forest inventories, monitoring systems and international sources, collected in cooperation with FOREST EUROPE, UNECE and FAO. It is widely recognised as a key reference for policymakers, scientists and forest practitioners.
Key findings of the 2025 edition
The SoEF 2025 highlights several important trends shaping Europe’s forests:
1. Forests continue to expand, but more slowly
- Forest area in Europe continues to increase, reflecting long-term efforts in afforestation and natural regeneration. However, the rate of expansion is slowing down in recent years.
2. Forests remain a major carbon sink, with signs of weakening
Carbon stored in forest biomass is still increasing, confirming the important role of forests in climate change mitigation. Between 2010 and 2025, forests sequestered on average around 106 million tonnes of CO₂ per year.
However, the rate of increase is flattening, and there is evidence in some regions of a weakening sink function, linked to climate impacts, natural disturbances and changes in harvesting levels.
3. Growing stock increases, but under pressure
- Forest growing stock has increased over the past decades, although growth has slowed in recent years. This reflects a combination of factors, including forest damage, harvesting intensity and changes in forest structure.
4. Multifunctional forests at the heart of European societies
- European forests provide a wide range of ecosystem services, including wood production, biodiversity conservation, climate regulation and recreation. They play a key role in the transition towards a circular bioeconomy.
5. Increasing pressures and risks
- Forests are facing growing pressures from climate change, including droughts, storms, wildfires and pest outbreaks. These disturbances are becoming more frequent and severe, affecting forest health and resilience.
6. Emerging challenges
- Despite these positive trends, significant challenges remain: an increase in natural disturbances (storms, pests and wildfires); growing complexity in sustainable forest management decisions, driven by the combined effects of stronger ecological constraints, new policy imperatives (climate and biodiversity), and heightened pressure from natural risks; and the need to better integrate data and indicators to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of ongoing trends.
Why this report matters
The SoEF 2025 provides a solid and harmonised knowledge base to:
- monitor progress towards sustainable forest management,
- better understand long-term trends and emerging challenges,
- inform policies related to climate, biodiversity and the bioeconomy.
It is a key tool for fostering informed dialogue among policymakers, scientists, forest managers and stakeholders across Europe.
Looking ahead
The 2025 edition comes at a time of major environmental and socio-economic transitions. While European forests continue to deliver essential ecological, economic and social functions, they are increasingly exposed to complex and interconnected challenges.
Strengthening forest resilience will require enhanced monitoring systems, adaptive management approaches and continued cooperation at regional and international levels.
Adapting Criteria and Indicators to the Mediterranean context: the contribution of the StrategyMedFor project
Within this pan-European context, the StrategyMedFor project contributes to enhancing the relevance of forest monitoring by adapting FOREST EUROPE’s Sustainable Forest Management Criteria and Indicators (C&I) to the ecological, climatic and socio-economic specificities of the Mediterranean basin.
Faced with unique conditions—growing aridity, extreme wildfire risks, high pressure on natural resources, and rich endemic biodiversity—the project has developed a complementary set of C&I to better assess the resilience of Mediterranean forests. This work, carried out in collaboration with scientific institutions and managers of pilot sites, aims to refine the understanding of local dynamics and provide decision-making tools tailored to territorial needs.
This contribution is fully consistent with the SoEF 2025, enriching the European ambition for harmonised monitoring while taking into account Mediterranean realities, where the impacts of climate change are particularly intense.
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Vous êtes chercheur, gestionnaire forestier ou simplement passionné par la nature ? N’hésitez pas à vous abonner à notre newsletter pour recevoir les dernières informations. Vous pouvez également nous contacter pour toute question ou pour participer à nos projets.