Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing

Sector Definition and Strategic Importance

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The Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing sector corresponds to NACE Section A in the European economic classification system. It covers crop and animal production, forestry and logging, fishing and aquaculture. Although its direct share in European gross value added is smaller than industry or services, the sector has a disproportionately high sustainability relevance because it manages land, soil, water, forests, biodiversity, animal resources and marine ecosystems. Eurostat treats agriculture, forestry and fishery together as a dedicated statistical domain for EU food-system, land-use and natural-resource monitoring. 

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From a sustainability perspective, the sector sits at the centre of five major European policy agendas: food security, climate mitigation, climate adaptation, biodiversity restoration, and rural development. The EU Common Agricultural Policy for 2023–2027 is explicitly structured around social, environmental and economic sustainability objectives, while the Common Fisheries Policy is designed to manage European fishing fleets and conserve fish stocks. 

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Climate and Greenhouse Gas Profile

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Agriculture remains one of the most difficult sectors to decarbonise because its emissions are strongly linked to biological processes rather than only fuel combustion. Eurostat’s greenhouse gas emission accounts show that in the EU agricultural sector, methane represented 52% of sector emissions, nitrous oxide 26%, and carbon dioxide 21% in 2024. Methane mainly comes from livestock and manure management, while nitrous oxide is associated with fertilisation and soil processes. 

The European Environment Agency states that agriculture is responsible for around 11% of total EU greenhouse gas emissions and remains a significant source of ammonia and other air pollutants. This makes livestock systems, fertiliser management, manure management, feed systems and soil carbon practices central sustainability priorities for the sector. 

Forestry has a different climate role. Forests are both productive ecosystems and carbon sinks. The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre reports that forests cover around 40% of EU territory and absorbed around 10% of EU human-caused emissions between 1990 and 2022. However, the forest carbon sink is declining because of pressures including drought, wildfire, pests, disease, ageing forests and harvesting intensity. 

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Biodiversity, Land and Ecosystem Pressures

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Agriculture, forestry and fisheries are directly dependent on ecosystem health, but they also create pressure on biodiversity when production systems are intensive or poorly managed. The EU Nature Restoration Regulation, which entered into force on 18 August 2024, establishes a continent-wide legal framework to restore degraded ecosystems, habitats and species. It is especially relevant for agricultural land, forests, wetlands, rivers, pollinators and marine ecosystems. 

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Biodiversity risks in agriculture include habitat simplification, pesticide use, fertiliser runoff, soil degradation, loss of pollinators and drainage of wetlands. In forestry, key risks include monoculture plantations, excessive harvesting, fragmentation, wildfire and pest outbreaks. In fisheries, the main sustainability issues are overfishing, bycatch, seabed disturbance, marine pollution and slow stock recovery in certain regions.

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The European Commission’s Farm to Fork Strategy and Biodiversity Strategy set targets including reducing the use and risk of chemical pesticides by 50%, reducing the use of more hazardous pesticides by 50%, reducing fertiliser use by at least 20%, and reaching 25% organic agricultural land by 2030. 

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Water, Soil and Pollution

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Water is one of the most critical sustainability constraints for the sector. The EEA’s Europe’s State of Water 2024 report identifies three major priorities: restoring aquatic ecosystems, achieving zero pollution, and adapting to water scarcity, drought and flood risks. Agriculture is described as the largest water consumer and a major source of nutrient and pesticide pollution in Europe. 

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The sector’s main water-related risks include irrigation demand, nitrate leaching, pesticide runoff, soil erosion, water abstraction, eutrophication and drought vulnerability. These risks are expected to increase as climate change intensifies droughts, heatwaves and irregular rainfall patterns across Europe.

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Soil sustainability is equally important. Sustainable soil management requires reduced erosion, improved organic matter, balanced fertilisation, lower compaction, crop rotation, cover crops, reduced tillage where appropriate, and restoration of degraded agricultural land. Soil health is also directly linked to climate adaptation because soils with higher organic matter retain more water and support more resilient production systems.

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Organic Farming and Sustainable Production Transition

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Organic farming is one of the EU’s flagship indicators for sustainable agriculture. Eurostat reports that organic farming covered 16.9 million hectares in the EU in 2022, equal to 10.5% of total EU agricultural land. Organic livestock also increased, including 5.4 million organically reared bovine animals, representing 7.2% of all bovines in 2022. 

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However, progress remains below the EU’s 2030 target of 25% organic agricultural land. The European Court of Auditors noted in 2024 that the EU target requires a significant acceleration from the 10.5% level recorded in 2022. 

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Organic farming is not the only sustainability pathway. Other relevant approaches include regenerative agriculture, agroecology, precision farming, integrated pest management, low-input farming, agroforestry, carbon farming, sustainable aquaculture and climate-smart forestry. The key challenge is to scale these practices while maintaining food affordability, farmer income and production resilience.

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Forestry Sustainability

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European forests provide timber, biomass, biodiversity habitats, recreation, watershed protection and carbon storage. Sustainability risks are rising because climate change is weakening forest resilience. The decline of the European forest carbon sink is now a material climate-policy risk. JRC analysis highlights that forests historically absorbed a meaningful share of EU emissions, but this sink is under pressure. 

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Forest Europe’s State of Europe’s Forests 2025 stresses the importance of transparent monitoring of carbon pools, including biomass, soils, deadwood and harvested wood products. This is essential because forest-sector sustainability cannot be assessed only through annual harvesting volumes; it must also consider carbon stock changes, biodiversity, disturbance risks and regeneration quality. 

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Priority actions for forestry include climate-resilient species selection, mixed-species forests, wildfire prevention, pest monitoring, restoration of degraded forests, sustainable harvesting, protection of old-growth and primary forests, and stronger carbon accounting.

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Fisheries and Aquaculture Sustainability

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The Common Fisheries Policy aims to ensure that fishing and aquaculture are environmentally, economically and socially sustainable. The European Commission’s 2025 update states that many EU fish stocks have improved from historic lows, especially in the North-East Atlantic, but recovery in the Mediterranean and Black Seas remains slower. 

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The sector’s sustainability challenges include overfishing, fleet capacity, bycatch, seabed impacts, illegal or unreported catches, energy use, fish-feed sustainability in aquaculture, disease management and ecosystem degradation. The Commission’s 2026 evaluation also noted that EU trade in fishery and aquaculture products grew by 18% in real terms between 2015 and 2024, while progress on economic and social resilience remained uneven. 

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Aquaculture can support food security and reduce pressure on wild stocks, but only if managed with strong standards on water quality, feed sourcing, antibiotic use, disease control, escape prevention and biodiversity protection.

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Social Sustainability and Rural Resilience

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The sector is central to rural employment, regional cohesion, food security and cultural landscapes. However, European farmers, fishers and forest owners face increasing economic pressure from input costs, climate losses, market volatility, ageing workforces, administrative complexity and international competition.

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Social sustainability priorities include fair farmer income, occupational safety, generational renewal, decent seasonal labour conditions, gender inclusion, rural infrastructure, digital access, training and support for small producers. CAP 2023–2027 includes rural development, income support and environmental objectives, but the balance between economic relief and environmental conditionality remains politically sensitive. 

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Regulatory and Policy Framework

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The main sustainability-related EU policy instruments affecting the sector are the Common Agricultural Policy 2023–2027, Common Fisheries Policy, Farm to Fork Strategy, EU Biodiversity Strategy, Nature Restoration Regulation, Water Framework Directive, Nitrates Directive, LULUCF Regulation, and EU climate targets under the European Green Deal. The CAP has three explicit environmental goals: tackling climate change, protecting natural resources and enhancing biodiversity. 

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The Nature Restoration Regulation is particularly important because it introduces binding restoration obligations for degraded ecosystems. This will increasingly affect land management, forest restoration, pollinator protection, wetlands, river continuity and marine habitats. 

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Key Sustainability Risks

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The main sustainability risks for Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing in Europe are climate-related yield losses, water scarcity, methane and nitrous oxide emissions, soil degradation, biodiversity loss, pesticide and fertiliser pollution, declining forest carbon sinks, overfishing in vulnerable regions, rural income pressure and adaptation costs.

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The most material environmental risks are linked to livestock emissions, fertiliser intensity, land-use change, water stress, ecosystem degradation and forest disturbance. The most material social risks are farmer income instability, labour conditions, rural depopulation and generational renewal. The most material governance risks are weak traceability, inconsistent data quality, insufficient farm-level monitoring, and uneven implementation of EU rules across Member States.

 

Key Performance Indicators for Sustainability Assessment

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A robust sustainability assessment of this sector should include greenhouse gas emissions per hectare and per unit of output, methane emissions from livestock, nitrous oxide emissions from fertilisation, fertiliser intensity, pesticide use and risk indicators, water withdrawal per hectare, irrigation efficiency, soil organic carbon, erosion risk, organic farming share, biodiversity-friendly land share, ammonia emissions, livestock density, manure management practices, forest carbon stock change, sustainable forest management certification, harvested wood balance, wildfire damage, fish stock status, fishing mortality, bycatch rates, aquaculture feed conversion, antibiotic use, labour safety, farmer income resilience and supply-chain traceability.

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Sector Outlook

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The sustainability transition of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing in Europe will be shaped by a difficult balance between food security, farmer income, climate targets and nature restoration. The sector is unlikely to decarbonise through energy efficiency alone because a large part of its emissions comes from biological processes. Therefore, the main transformation areas will be livestock system redesign, manure and fertiliser optimisation, soil carbon practices, organic and regenerative farming, climate-resilient forestry, ecosystem restoration, sustainable fisheries management and low-impact aquaculture.

The sector’s long-term competitiveness will increasingly depend on credible sustainability data, traceable supply chains, climate adaptation capacity, efficient resource use and alignment with EU environmental regulation. Companies and producers that can demonstrate measurable reductions in emissions, water stress, pollution and biodiversity impact will be better positioned for access to finance, public support, procurement markets and sustainability-conscious consumers.