Forest damage is increasing across Europe, driven by climate change, extreme events and biotic threats. This trend is also reflected in the findings of the State of Europe’s Forests 2025 (SoEF 2025), which point to growing pressures on forest ecosystems and increasing impacts on their capacity to deliver key functions.

At a recent FOREST EUROPE lunch webinar, experts from Czech Republic, Scotland and Portugal, together with UNECE, shared national and international perspectives on how these risks are evolving and how they are being addressed in practice. The discussion highlighted a shift from more isolated disturbances to increasingly complex and interacting pressures, raising questions for policy and management on how to move from reactive responses towards more proactive approaches.

From response to preparedness

In her closing remarks, moderator Silvia Abruscato (FoRISK) highlighted that the country cases reflect the complexity of forest damage and disturbance, driven by multiple interacting factors, and emphasised the need to better connect sustainable forest management with policy and decision-making. She underlined the importance of cross-sectoral cooperation, timely information and preparedness, stressing the need to focus on prevention and preparedness when dealing with risk or disturbances.

She also noted that crises can support improvements in coordination, advisory systems and response capacity, while reinforcing the importance of monitoring and timely information for informed decision-making.

National experiences

Dr Roman Michalak (UNECE) highlighted that forest damage is increasing across the UNECE region and is driven by a combination of factors, including insects, diseases, weather events and climate change, with impacts varying across regions. He emphasised the importance of understanding forest damage and disturbance in relation to both ecological functions and human values, noting that maintaining forest health involves balancing naturalness with the services forests provide.

Tomáš Krejzar (Czech Republic) highlighted that the Czech bark beetle crisis was primarily driven by prolonged drought and extreme climatic conditions rather than traditional disturbance factors, leading to unprecedented forest loss and large-scale sanitary fellings. He emphasised that the timing of response was critical and noting that delayed action contributed to the scale of the damage. The importance of having the policy action in place in Chzecia as lesson learnt, gave them the understanding that policies need to be more open to cover various aspects when dealing with crisis.

João Verde (Portugal) described that forest damage in Portugal is closely associated with wildfire, influenced by weather conditions as well as land use and forest structure, and referred to measures including prevention and fuel management. He emphasised that a key challenge is ensuring continuity in implementation and coordination among the different actors involved over time.

William Clark and Jason Hubert (Scotland) highlighted that forest damage in Scotland is linked to storms, with climate conditions influencing their occurrence and impacts, and described responses including monitoring, guidance and support for forest managers, having a contingency plan in place. They emphasised that many of the key issues are already known and stressed the importance of applying existing knowledge in practice and maintaining coordination among stakeholders.

Watch the recording of the webinar “Rising forest damage in Europe – risks, drivers, and policy responses” and also get information about upcoming webinars: