FORESTS IN GERMANY,    FORESTS IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

The Federal Law on Forests and the Law of Forests of the states guarantee the sustainable ecological, economic and social performance of the forests. The German forest area is divided into state forest, community forest and private forest.

Division of the forest area in Germany in  % (Holzabsatzfonds, 2004)

In 2009 the annual logging in Germany has been greater than 48 million m3 (without bark). In Germany the per capita consumption of wood amounts 1.15 m3.
In most of the Federal states the state forest is divided in regional forest offices. The forest offices consist of individual forest districts with a size of 1.500 to 3.000 hectares. The forest districts are managed by foresters. The main tasks of the forest offices are the management of the property as well as the management of the forests under economic aspects. These tasks include the production of wood as well as harvesting and marketing of wood and nonwood products. On the same area they have to guarantee the protection and recreational function of the forest.

Young foresters in Eberswalde, Germany (Astrid Schilling)

In Germany about 1.2 million people work for the forest, for instance in forest offices, in research institutes, in sawmills and in the paper industry. The people are organised in various professional and interest groups: Bund Deutscher Forstleute (BDF) or in the Schutzgemeinschaft Deutscher Wald (SDW). The SDW was founded in 1947 and is the oldest citizens' initiative in Germany. In Germany there are four Universities, where you can study Forest Sciences. At five Universities of Applied Sciences you can study Forestry; there the education is more practice-oriented.

Old Forest academy in Eberswalde, today HNE Eberswalde (Astrid Schilling)

The „German forest“ as a romantic landscape has been already described at the beginning of the 19th century. You can read it in poems, legends and fairy tales, like “Little Brother & Little Sister”. Whereas in those days Hansel and Gretel got lost in the dark forest, nowadays the forest is an ideal place for recreation and health of the people (“Doctor Forest”). These include in particular educational activities, for instance Forest education and Forest kindergartens. Today Forest education is one of the central tasks of a German forester.

Listen to the silence of the forest. Near Potsdam, Germany (Astrid Schilling)

12 years old pupils during the measurement of tree heights. Britz, Germany (Astrid Schilling)

High-school students from Berlin are callipering a trunk diameter. Eberswalde, Germany (Astrid Schilling)

Winter landscape close to Altkünkendorf, Germany (Stephanie Gotza)