Securing availability of forest reproductive material suitable for future challenges

Supporting the conservation and sustainable use of diverse plant and forest genetic resources

Enabling the uptake of new scientific and technical developments and innovative production processes

On Tuesday, Parliament adopted a deal on new rules to ensure the supply of high-quality forest reproductive material.

The text approved seeks to improve the quality, availability and traceability of forest reproductive material as well as remove obstacles to its trade within the EU internal market.

According to the agreement, member states may seek technical support from the Commission when drawing up voluntary contingency plans to ensure the sufficient supply of forest reproductive material to reforest areas affected by extreme weather events or disasters. Forest reproductive material will have to be traceable from collection to marketing. New scientific and technical developments such as digital traceability as well as innovative production processes will be enabled and implemented.

Closer cooperation and common modern standards

The regulation will provide higher standards with rules that will ensure that only approved and certified seeds and plants will be placed on the EU market, while at the same time strengthening their traceability.

Member states will now have to cooperate to ensure a supply of forest reproductive material for cross-border affected areas.

Producers of forest reproductive material will have to notify national authorities of their intention to harvest forest reproductive material prior to the beginning of the harvesting, to allow for the organisation of controls.

Quote

European Parliament rapporteur, Herbert Dorfmann, (EPP, IT) said: “Europe needs a functioning European single market for forest reproductive material, too. This is the only way we can meet the growing demand for high-quality young trees, which are needed to meet the increasing demand caused by climate change and the growing bioeconomy. The agreement improves the quality of our young trees, as it creates the possibility to bring more high-quality reproductive material onto the single market, while at the same time ensuring the burden on national administrations and control authorities is as light as possible. A win for Europe and its forests!”

Next steps

The date of application of the regulation has been set to five years, to provide time for the necessary adaptation of national practice and to implement the new control system.

Background

On 5 July 2023, the European Commission put forward a proposal for a regulation on the production and marketing of forest reproductive material (FRM) that would replace the current FRM Council Directive. FRM includes seeds, parts of trees (such as stem or leaf cuttings, explants, buds, layers, roots and scions) and planting stock (plants raised from seeds or parts of plants). Good quality FRM, planted in the right conditions and the right climate, can help ensure the future resilience of forests, and help the EU achieve its sustainability, biodiversity and climate goals.

EU forests cover around 160 million hectares and account for 39% of the total EU land area. Although the area under forests has been declining globally, in the EU it has been on the increase, growing by more than 5% over the past 30 years. Six member states (Sweden, Spain, Finland, France, Italy and Germany) account for more than two thirds of the total EU area covered by forests, while five member states (Finland, Sweden, Slovenia, Estonia and Latvia) have more than half of their national territory covered by forests.