“Sustainable forest management under various types of ownership,

German experience”

18 Governing Council MeetingUNION OF EUROPEAN FORESTERS

10 October 2014

Nessebar, Bulgaria

Hans Jacobs, BDF

Germany, some facts about ForestryForestry area: 11,1 Mio ha (31 %)

Total wood stock: 3,4 Mrd m³

(= 320 m³/ha)

Timber growth per year: 120 Mio m³

Potential timber production: 80 Mio m³

Real timber production : ca. 70 Mio m³

Value Cluster Forest and forest prod.: ca. 168 billion €

Employee forestry sector: 99.000

Employee total cluster: 1,3 Millionen

Tree species

Forest Ownership in Germany

• Germany is divided in 13 areal states and 3 city states

• The forest covered area is very divers, between 10 % and 42 %

• Every state has its own forestry administration system.

• Even the percentage of the different ownerships is very divers:• All over Germany:

• State-ownered Forests 30 %

• Privat owned Forests 44 %

• Commune owned Forests 20 %

• German Federation owned 6 %

Forest management in Germany

• In former time organisied as a dependent part of the Agriculture Ministery

• Then in more and more states the responsibility was transferred into the new Enviromental Ministery

• state forests were mainly managed for public targets

• Enviroment, Biodiversity

• Advising of private forestry owners

• Recreation of people

• Public Authority in matters of Forest law

• Producing timber

• All the state forest organisations were not able to cover their costs.

1.State and federal owned forests:

• Since the beginning of this century the state forest administrations were nearly all transformed into private organisations (public institutions)

- some of the former targets were reduced (Enviroment, Recreation) or

- some were removed to other administrations (advising of private owners, public authority)

- In many administrations the number of employees was reduced to nearly 50 % during the last

2 decades.

• In combination with an increasing timber production and also increasing timber prises the new organisations succeeded to get a positive economic balance.

• But in the public perception some of the public targets have been substancially reduced.

• The political message was achieved, that an old fashioned administration could be transformed into a modern, economically acting organisation.

But in fact this positive statement is only half the truth!But

If you count all the people and tasks, that had been outsourced, the financial result would be nearly the same as before.

2. Private forestry organization

2 Mio. private forestry owners

2,5 ha in average per owner

57 % have less than 20 ha.

12 % have >1.000 ha;most of them with own forestal employees

80 % of the private owned forests area is organized in regional organizations.

They were formed for helping the small forest owners to manage their forests.

- Own forest employee

Private forestry owners and also the private owners organisations are financially supported by

the EU/Germany/Federal state for some special investments

(new plantation, building of forestry roads, compensive calcification), in average 14 €/ha and year , the

organisations get 40 % of their costs

There are various types of foresters active in these organizations

- State forest company

- Private consultant

- agricultural self-administration

2,2 Mio ha are commune forestry area.

- big forestry communes have their own forestal staff

3. Commune forestry organization

- in some federal states the state forestry organization has to consult the communes

- -O

- Otherwise they can participate in the private owners administrations.

- In the last years forestry is getting more and more profitable

Practical experience

- The new administration structures are not able to care of the hundred thousants of owners with less than 1 ha ownership and with no chance to see the border to the neighbor

- There is an increasing number of forest owners, who don´t want timber to be cut. It needs a lot of human and financial recources to consult them

- In those bad structured regions there are no solutions for mobilizing timber and fighting the climate change

- Since a few years the monopolies and mergers commission is fighting against the forestry

organisation.

- In fact the pricing process sometimes wasn´t correct, especially if people cared about the

timber of all the different ownerships

- But now the commission wants the stately organised forests organsations not to consult

the private owners any moore because in their oppinion every case of public consultance gets the collueges some potential information about the timberselling of the single owner. And that

information leads to an atvantage on the marked which is not allowed.

Thank you for your atention!