The European Union’s strategic agenda responds to clear and present challenges facing member states and European citizens.
We are to reinforce a prosperous and competitive Europe, extend our alliances, achieve a green transition, and defend democratic values.
At the same time we must handle external threats and reduce unwanted dependencies.
These priorities require solutions that build on Europe’s own strengths and resources.
One obvious cornerstone are opportunities offered in the bioeconomy where long traditions and favourable conditions form a backbone of European prosperity and growth. It’s about food and agriculture, of course, but given current directions we must also look to the critical importance of the forest-based bioeconomy.
An updated bioeconomy strategy was released by the EU Commission last November. It highlights competitiveness, investments, resource efficiency and rural development. It provides an excellent focus on opportunities for supporting the green transition.
At the same time, the strategy is defensive when it comes to growth opportunities and it avoids fundamental aspects — particularly related to the role of forests.
As leaders of forest-based industries in Sweden, we have examined the commission’s bioeconomy strategy and would like to suggest a few improvements related to the role of wood.
First, the bioeconomy strategy must be seen in a broader context
As presented, it is largely confined to producer aspects, under environmental restrictions. We want to elevate values created throughout the entire wood-based value chain as economic value and expected climate benefits are realised when consumers can choose and benefit from renewable solutions originating from forest biomass.
A full value-chain perspective makes it obvious how wood-based products provide jobs, welfare, health, climate and independence. Initiatives like the European Bauhaus are excellent examples of this broader view.
Second, the bioeconomy strategy underplays the economic significance of wood-based value chains
It states about €240bn in added value, corresponding to less than 1.5 percent of the EU economy, and creating less than 3 million jobs. Considering contributions from the full value chain quite a different picture emerges: seven percent of economic value created in the European Union and 17 million jobs. In other words, the bioeconomy strategy as it is formulated addresses less than a quarter of the true value creation from wood.
Clearly, the wood-based component of the bioeconomy has a huge role to play for the EU.
Third, there are mixed signals related to the supply of primary biomass
The bioeconomy depends on efforts by forest owners in managing forests for better growth, reduced risks and a steady supply of wood to the market. Over time, the supply of wood from the forest must increase if we are to meet expectations on the bioeconomy.
Instead, the bioeconomy strategy talks about “Reducing the need for primary biomass: relying on secondary feedstocks and circularity”.
Recycling and efficient use of biomass are already hallmarks in manufacturing of wood-based products.
No doubt, these factors can be further developed, increasing circularity as well as production volumes.
But concluding that this should be a means for reducing primary biomass supply is leading in the wrong direction. The challenges ahead requires us to manage forests actively and gradually increase the sustainable harvest of wood. Recycling, efficiency in resource use and increased supply of wood are all needed to reduce our untenable dependency on fossils.
It is clear to us that earlier EU regulations related to, e.g., Land Use Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF, tied to the EU climate ambitions) and Nature Restoration are not calibrated with the renewed EU priorities and the ambitions expressed in the bioeconomy strategy.
This has led to a restrictive perspective on wood supply even from sustainable forests, which is counterproductive.
The EU should revisit these and other instruments so as to ensure that they do not hinder the necessary developments we see today.
Nordic countries have decades of experience with long-term investments in forest restoration that have doubled sustainable wood harvests while simultaneously increasing forest inventories.
Continuous development of forest management with nature conservation, harvest operations and logistics are the backbone of our thriving forest industry sector. Industries which, in turn, are well-tuned engines for bioeconomy value creation.
In conclusion, Europe cannot deliver on its bioeconomy ambitions without a clear, science-based commitment to increase the sustainable supply of wood.
Drawing on decades of Nordic experience, we know that active forest management, higher growth and strong nature conservation can go hand-in-hand.
The EU needs a bioeconomy framework that moves from caution to confidence: one that aligns climate, nature and competitiveness policies, unlocks investments in wood-based value chains, and enables European citizens and industries to choose renewable solutions at scale.
Without this shift, the forest-based bioeconomy will remain an aspiration rather than a driver of Europe’s green, prosperous and resilient future.
About the companies:
The core of Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA)’s business is the forest, Europe’s largest private forest holding. Around this unique resource, SCA has built a well-developed value chain based on renewable raw material from its own and others’ forests. SCA offers packaging paper, pulp, wood products, renewable energy, services for forest owners and efficient transport solutions. In 2025 the forest products company SCA had approximately 3,500 employees and net sales amounted to 20 billion Swedish krona [€1.86bn]. SCA was founded in 1929 and is headquartered in Sundsvall, Sweden.
Holmen’s business is built around the forest ecocycle and the renewable products it can create from it. With a workforce of 3,500 people, Holmen creates value for shareholders, customers and society. Holmen’s net sales in 2025 amounted to 22 billion Swedish krona and its shares are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm.
This stakeholder article is paid for by a third party. All opinions in this article reflect the views of the author and not of EUobserver.
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