Forest relevant targets in EU policy instruments - can progress be measured by the pan-European criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management?

Abstract Several forest related EU policy instruments have set forest relevant quantitative or qualitative targets. We identify the forest relevant targets in current EU policy instruments, and examine whether the pan-European Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management (Forest Europe, 2015a) are sufficient to satisfy the information needs of EU policy makers when monitoring progress towards these targets. We apply a computer-based quantitative analysis of forest related EU policy instruments, using key words. In the policy instruments we analysed, forest relevant targets are completely integrated with targets for other sectors in a wider context. Relatively few of the identified forest relevant targets are quantitative; qualitative targets are predominant. In our analysis we show that the pan-European Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management, as they stand, would require adjustments to several of the indicators to provide information on progress towards the identified forest relevant quantitative and qualitative targets. Our results can contribute to reporting on progress towards forest-relevant targets in EU forest related policies, notably by identifying what parameters could be measured and might facilitate forest related target setting in revisions and development of policy instruments, particularly the revision of the EU Forest Strategy.