The European Union’s forest diplomacy: A path toward ostensible environmental sustainability

The European Union (EU) has established itself as a leading actor in international climate governance, yet its performance in the forest sector remains constrained by tensions among economic, social, and environmental dimensions. Although EU primary law and instruments such as Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade and the Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products project an ambition for global sustainable leadership, practice reveals the predominance of weak sustainability — limited to economic balancing and minimal regulation of environmental impacts. This article advances socioecological justice as the theoretical framework for evaluating EU forest diplomacy, arguing that its legitimacy will be strengthened only through the effective incorporation of participatory parity, North–South equity, and the inclusion of vulnerable communities in decision-making. Without such adjustments, EU forest diplomacy risks reproducing Eurocentric models, undermining its mission of sustainable leadership at the global scale.