Forests are crucial to maintaining climate change below 2ºC. Forests also provide jobs, revenue and raw material for industries and renewable energy. They also protect the soil, regulate freshwater supplies and conserve biodiversity. So we risk a lot if we don't look after them.

The Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe is taking place on the 6th and 7th of April in Valsaín (Segovia), an area of immense environmental wealth and vast pine forests situated on the Northern side of the Sierra de Guararrama mountain range.

A debate has began in the EU on whether it is necessary to take additional measures to protect Europe's forests, which occupy 176 million hectares - more than 42 per cent of the whole European Union territory - and the Spanish government has decided to hold a conference on this topic during the semester in which it occupies the rotating Presidency of Council of the European Union.

Organised by the Spanish Ministry of Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs and the European Commission, the conference will be attended by European politicians, experts and members of the Administration, economic and social organisations and international organisations related to the forest sector.

Its brief is to analyse the situation of European forests, paying special attention to the singularities and weaknesses existing at bioregional level such as forest fires, storms, avalanches and floods, using the “Green Paper on Forest Protection and Information”, adopted by the Commission on 1 March last, as a basis for discussion.

The Green Paper contains a number of possible European Union approaches to forest protection and information on forest resources and their state. The answers from the public, member states, European Union institutions and other interested parties will orientate the Commission on whether it is necessary for the European Union to adopt new measures or not.

The conference aspires to adopt a number of conclusions, summarised in a final statement, that will include guidelines to improve the protection of European forests.