The role of forests and the forest-based industry in bioeconomy

Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Aleksandar Stijović participated today in the third high-level conference of the Coordination Mechanism for Forestry Cooperation between China and 16 countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

The topic of the online meeting was the role of forests and the forest-based industry in bioeconomy.

The conference was attended by 150 participants from China and Southeast Europe, as well as a large number of top officials in the field of forestry and bioeconomy.

This conference is a concrete action to implement 2021 Cooperation between China and CEEC Beijing List of Activities, agreed by the China-CEEC Summit held virtually on 9 February 2021.

Bioeconomy presents great opportunities for the forest sector. As the biggest land-based renewable resource, forests are essential to forest-based biomass energy, bio-based materials, pharmaceuticals, forest food and forest healing industry. Both China and CEE countries have rich forest resources. The 17 CEE countries have a total forest area of 50 million ha, with an average forest coverage of 34% and a per capita forest stock volume of almost 200 m3/ha. The forest area in China is 220 million ha, with 23.04% forest coverage.

The countries of the 16+1 Initiative urge all international and national stakeholders to increase and accelerate their efforts in forestry, primarily in climate change mitigation, by promoting strong intersectoral cooperation with national forestry institutions, non-governmental organisations, academic institutions and international organisations.

The Coordination Mechanism for Cooperation in Forestry between China and CEEC (16+1 forestry cooperation), launched in May 2016, aims to explore cooperation among members in forest policy, scientific research and education, as well as business and investment.