Forestry biomass production within a sustainable and circular bioeconomy (2020).
Brief me
- Forestry has a central role among the biomass producing sectors, providing valuable resources for the EU bioeconomy as well as supporting biodiversity and various ecosystem services.
- Forests in the EU cover more than one third of the land area and they have been expanding since 1990, although the rate of expansion is slowing down.
- The annual wood harvests in the EU are ca. 570 million m3 (average 2019-2023), corresponding to ca. 75% of the net annual increment.
- Over the last decade, the European forestry sector employed on average 514 000 people and produced an annual value added of EUR 31.7 billion (Lasarte-López et al., 2025).
- Sustainable wood production implies balancing harvesting with the full range of other forest ecosystem services.
Find out more in the brief and explore further other resources!
Explore further
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EU observatory on deforestation and forest degradation
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Key publications on forestry biomass
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Infographics and datasets on forestry biomass
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The JRC Biomass Mandate
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Stakeholder and expert groups on forestry
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