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MTK’s Successful Advocacy Leads to Rejection of Forest Monitoring Regulation – Deforestation Regulation Implementation Postponed

24.09.2025

The European Parliament has rejected the Commission’s proposal for a forest monitoring regulation, and an additional year has been proposed for implementing the deforestation regulation. MTK welcomes these decisions, as they reduce unnecessary regulation targeting forest owners and would not have achieved their intended objectives.

The Environment and Agriculture Committees voted on Tuesday on the forest monitoring regulation, which would have significantly increased data collection from forests and imposed new reporting obligations on forest owners. “Forest owners already have access to extensive national and international data to support forest planning. Developing EU-level forest monitoring would threaten property rights, increase regulation, and give the Commission broad powers over detailed map-level data, the use and interpretation of which remain uncertain,” says MTK’s Director of Forestry, Marko Mäki-Hakola.

The Commission has stated that its goal is to simplify EU legislation, but the forest monitoring proposal would have increased administrative burdens for member states. “No decision-maker has been able to justify what the raw data from the forest monitoring regulation would be used for, or why the Commission needs property-specific information from forest owners,” adds Maria Pohjala, MTK’s International Forest Affairs Specialist.

Additionally, Commissioner Jessika Roswall has proposed that the implementation of the deforestation regulation be postponed by one year, so that obligations would not apply from the beginning of next year. “The well-intentioned deforestation regulation has proven unworkable and causes unnecessary regulation. The extension allows for simplification and may even lead to its withdrawal – unfortunately, many actors, including forest management associations, have already had to invest in an unnecessary and ineffective system,” emphasizes Mäki-Hakola.

The forest monitoring regulation would have required forest data to be collected and shared in map format, even at the property level, raising questions about data ownership and use. According to the EU Commission, the aim of the proposal, published at the end of 2023, is to harmonize forest condition monitoring and data collection across the Union.

Further information:
Marko Mäki-Hakola, Director of Forestry, marko.maki-hakola@mtk.fi, tel. +358 40 502 6810
Maria Pohjala, International Forest Affairs Specialist, maria.pohjala@mtk.fi, tel. +358 50 341 7614