Published:
GE.77-22014This is the third study of the European Timber Trends and Prospects series. These studies aimed to map out possible or likely future developments, on the basis of past trends, as a contribution to evidence-based policy formulation and decision making.
The conclusions in the study, tentative though they are, suggest that the European economy and, more specifically, the forest and forest products economy, is passing through an important period, of change and adaptation. It marks, therefore, a turning point in the evolution of the Timber Committee and the European Forestry Commission and their member countries. It affords them, as well as all those who are concerned, with the long-term development of the forestry and forest products economy in Europe, an opportunity to turn away for a moment from everyday concerns and to look back over past achievements and then forward, to the challenges and opportunities which seem to lie in the years ahead.
The study does not provide an outlook for individual countries beyond, the forecasts they provided themselves of the forestry situation. It seems presumptuous for us to attempt to predict individual country forest products balances, when countries have their own experts who can orient their analyses to their specific needs and who have access to detailed information which should allow them to do the job better. What a regional study can do, however, is to provide a framework within which work with a more specific objectives e can be elaborated, at the national level.
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