Forest change across the European Union: spatial patterns, drivers, and governance insights from a pan-European expert survey

Research paper

Key message 

Forests in Europe are changing unevenly. Recovery dominates parts of Northern and Central Europe, while disturbance, degradation, and loss intensify in Southern and Eastern regions, and urbanization-driven fragmentation is spreading widely. A pan-European expert survey shows that climate and market pressures matter everywhere, but forest change outcomes depend most on governance capacity—enforcement, coordination, and regionally adapted incentives.

Keywords
Forest change; European forests; Forest governance; Drivers of forest change; Forest ecosystem services; PESTEL framework

Publication
Krumins, J., Klavins, M., Sima, M. et al. Forest change across the European Union: spatial patterns, drivers, and governance insights from a pan-European expert survey. Annals of Forest Science 83, 17 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13595-026-01335-9

Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available in the Zenodo repository. Survey on Forest Change in Europe: Drivers, Patterns, and Policy Implications: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15209956, and Country-level aggregation of expert survey responses on forest change in the European Union: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17978134.

Handling editor
Erwin Dreyer