European Forestry Pulse #100 🌲

Hello,

This is issue 100.

It started small — a handful of inboxes. Today it reaches more than 500 forest owners, investors and foresters in more than 25 countries, three times a week. Every number still traces to a primary source. That part will never change.

Thank you for reading. Whether you joined at issue 1 or issue 99, you made this. I read every reply, and they shape what I cover next.

A quick word on what's coming. In October I'll be on stage in Rotterdam, talking forestry and paper to the people who print the world's newspapers. A few more things land this year. One is a live tool you'll log into for forestry intelligence built around you. The other is a companion to the Playbook, written for the people who put capital into forests.

Now, to issue 100. Fittingly, the Big Story is about a new door opening for forest owners.

Here's what's moving European forestry this week:

A carbon model that rewards longer rotations just reached Europe at scale. It does not lock a single hectare away.

An Estonian developer named Ecobase has registered a major forest carbon project. The registry is Verra. The project number is 5315.

It covers about 570,000 hectares. The land sits across Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Latvia.

It is the first European project to use Verra's VM0003 method. That method is called Improved Forest Management, or IFM.

The idea is simple. You let stands grow older before you harvest. The extra growing years store extra carbon. That stored carbon becomes credits.

The first credits are due by the end of 2026. The initial issue is about 900,000 credits, called Verified Carbon Units.

Owners keep managing the forest as a working asset. The trees still get harvested — just later.

For years, forest carbon in Europe meant one of two things. Plant new trees, or lock forests away. IFM is a third path. It pays for better management of forests you already work.

That fits European forestry far better. Most of Europe's forests are managed and harvested. A model that rewards a longer rotation, not a locked gate, speaks their language.

The timing is no accident. We reported private money for nature hitting $14 billion a year in EFP #97. And the SBTi gave high-quality removals a formal, paid job, covered in EFP #95. The demand was building. Now a boreal-and-Baltic supply route has opened to meet it.

One caution. The credits still have to be issued and verified. A registration is the start line, not the finish.

If you own or manage forest in the Nordics or Baltics: a new revenue option just appeared. Extending rotation on some stands may now pay twice — in carbon now, and in larger logs later. Worth modelling.

If you invest in or fund forests: this is the methodology fit the region has waited for. Watch how the first issuance lands. Real credits, on time, would prove the model.

If you talk to the public or policymakers: here is the clean message. This is not forests locked away. It is forests managed for longer, storing more carbon while still producing wood. Growth and storage in the same stand.

On issue 100, that feels right. The sector keeps finding new ways to be paid for what it already does well. The asset is not just holding its ground. It is opening new ground. Sources: Carbon Pulse — Voluntary Carbon Market News, 15–21 June 2026 (subscription) | Ecobase — project developer

Europe's environment ministers met on 25 June. They put nature at the centre of the economy, not the edge of it.

Several member states called nature-based solutions "strategic infrastructure." That is the language used for roads, grids and ports. The ministers also backed "nature credits" — market tools to pull private money into ecosystems.

Why it matters: This is the policy side catching up with the money side. Private capital is already flowing into nature, as the Big Story shows. Now ministers are building the frame to channel it.

The takeaway: If you manage forests or sell ecosystem services, watch the nature-credits file. A recognised market is how your standing forest earns beyond timber. Source: Carbon Pulse — Nature & Biodiversity Pulse, 29 June 2026 (subscription)

UPM keeps pushing wood up the value chain. In May, it bought the Ray Technology patents from Dutch firm Avantium for about €2.7 million.

The technology turns plant-based sugars into bio-based glycols. Those glycols replace fossil ones in packaging and bottles. UPM is starting its first large biorefinery at Leuna, in Germany. UPM called the price not material to its size.

Why it matters: This is the fibre story from a new angle. Wood is not just lumber and pulp. It is becoming a feedstock for chemicals people use every day.

The takeaway: If you grow wood, your raw material gains end-markets each year. New demand for fibre supports long-term log and pulpwood value. Source: Renewable Carbon News — UPM acquires Ray Technology IP from Avantium

The European Forest Institute (EFI) has launched a free, open-access tool. It is called the Commodity Converter.

You enter a processed product. The tool estimates the raw commodity behind it, and the planted area it needed.

Why it matters: EUDR pushes the whole supply chain to understand the land behind a product. A free, public tool that estimates that footprint lowers the barrier for everyone.

The takeaway: Treat it as a transparency tool, not a compliance checker. It helps you speak the same quantitative language as buyers and auditors. The EFI Annual Conference in September (see below) is where work like this advances. Source: EFI — Commodity Converter

Run a "longer rotation" thought experiment on one stand. It takes about 20 minutes.

The Big Story shows a carbon model that pays you to grow trees longer. You can test the idea on your own ground, before any project.

By the weekend you will know if longer rotations are worth a serious look on part of your holding. That is the first question any IFM project asks.

The next time someone asks how a forest pays beyond the sawlog, you'll have thirty seconds to answer.

Right now — what do you say?

If the answer isn't ready, the Playbook is.

And tomorrow’s Professional issue gives you something you wish you had before and you will be glad you have it now. Let me give you a hint: forests and capital…

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Until Tomorrow!

Wish you all the best: Peter

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