CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2023
| Author | Kiss, Eszter |
|---|---|
| Title | Climate and biodiversity: a match made in fire The limits and ecological implications of EU forest policies in relation to the value of forest ecosystem services |
| Summary | Valuing and thus using forest ecosystem services properly is vital to mitigating climate change and conserving biodiversity. The European Union has recognised the importance of forest ecosystem services, which are included in many sectoral policies but in a non-coordinated or conflicting way. This is due to the lack of common EU forest policy, as forest policy remains the responsibility of the Member States. The thesis aimed to analyse the coherence of different sectoral policies, particularly the treatment of forest biomass as climate-neutral renewable energy and their ecological impacts, with a particular focus on two valuable forest ecosystem services, biodiversity and climate change mitigation. Using qualitative research methods through the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services’ values of nature and the global forest governance frameworks, literature review, EU policy analysis, and in-depth interviews with eleven experts in the field of forestry and forest protection, the author investigated EU forest policies. She found that the EU's policy of treating forest biomass as renewable energy not only means the loss of valuable European forests and thus further loss of biodiversity but also jeopardises the climate objectives of the European Green Deal. The author concludes that a reassessment of how forest ecosystem services are reflected in policies is needed, for which she makes suggestions. Besides EU policies, NGOs also need a strategy change, which the author proposes for further academic research. |
| Supervisor | Illés Zoltán |
| Department | Environment Sciences and Policy MSc |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2023/kiss_eszter.pdf |
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