Forest Land Ownership Change in Europe
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COST Action FP1201 FACESMAP Country Report GERMANY GERMANY Marc Koch, Carolin Maier 1. Introduction Germany’s forests have traditionally been protection measures and efforts to improve managed by their owners following the recreational opportunities in the forest are principle of sustainability which was officially provided in annual reports or online in a much “invented” in 1713 by Hans Carl von Carlowitz more detailed manner than 20 years ago. It in Saxony. The biggest challenge today is to can be concluded that public forests are adapt the forest stands to the effects of managed sustainably and on behalf of the climate change and maintain proper citizens. The nationwide inventory management of stands owned by new types (Bundeswaldinventur - BWI) confirms this of owners that have been emerging. impression showing a moderate increase of State forests are typically owned by the the standing stock over the last period and federal states. State owned companies or the increase of mixed uneven aged stands, forest administrations are entrusted with the dead wood and habitat trees. management of these areas. The second Much of the research efforts in Germany in biggest share of public forests is owned by the last 15 to 20 years have been focused on local authorities, namely towns and villages. the private forest sector and in particular on The public forests are usually managed by small scale owners´ aspects. Private forest forest professionals following management ownership (48 % in Germany) is much more plans which cover a period of 10 to 20 years. diverse than the public forests. Given the A forest inventory assessment provides the numerous owners (almost 2 million private basis for harvesting, thinning and juvenation owners) and their respective diverse goals we measures. Monitoring systems, ownership find a great variety of management responsibility and high training standards of philosophies including no management at all. forest professionals make sure that forests The forest management requirements stay in good condition. All in all the publicly concerning private forests, which are defined owned forests are managed according to by the Forest Act, are not as demanding as societal demands. In the recent past, e. g. those related to public forests. Big forest according to CBD, public forests were holdings (> 20 hectares) thus typically follow partially taken out of production to provide an economic rational. Timber production is greater areas for nature conservation here viewed as the most valuable outcome of (National Parks with high proportion of forests forest management. However, the vast in the states of Thuringia, Rhineland-Palatine, majority of private forest owners (e.g. Bavaria Baden-Wuerttemberg and Hessen). In trying 98.8 %) hold forest properties smaller than 20 to meet stakeholders’ and the public’s hectares. Table 1 shows the distribution by demand for information, the management of forest holding size. More than 57 % of the public forests has become more transparent. privately owned forest holdings are smaller Figures about timber production, nature than 20 hectares. Table 1: Distribution of privately owned forests in Germany by holding size (Source: BWI) Ownership-Size-Classes Private Forest area in ha from 0 to 20 ha 2.759.825 from 20 to 50 ha 391.322 from 50 to 100 ha 272.647 from 100 to 200 ha 241.872 from 200 to 500 ha 327.211 from 500 to 1000 ha 256.150 over 1000 ha 574.696 Aggregate 4.823.722 241 GERMANY COST Action FP1201 FACESMAP Country Report Small scale forest holdings present a a better understanding of mechanisms of challenge with respect to meeting current change and of new forest owner types. public policy goals. Among the issues are: Detailed analyses of the collected data and • Undesirable subdivision of forest land case study analyses are done in subsequent (fragmentation), mainly caused by work steps in the COST Action. property distribution among multiple This report was compiled based on a new owners. literature review and quantitative data. We • Increasing number of private forest relied on a combination of academic and grey owners. literature on the subject of private forest ownership, as well as statistical data provided Apart from restitution of previously state- by forest administration and other studies. managed forests after the reunification of West and East Germany, the number of forest owners listed in the land register is increasing, mainly forced by unprepared 3. Literature review on forest successions. ownership in change • Structural deficits often prevent economically viable and cost- The COST Action national representatives competitive management. aimed to review and compile information on changes in forest ownership in their countries Unclear boarders of the property, lack of based on scientific and grey scientific access-roads, fragmented parcels, several literature, including reports and articles in co-owners, small amount of timber per national languages and official statistics, measure etc. result in unreasonable formal guidance or advisory notes from transaction costs for owners as well as official websites, etc. potential trade partners. The scope of the literature review is as • Increasing share of forest owners follows: following an “urban” life style. • Forest ownership change (with a These owners are characterised by different specific focus on new forest ownership preferences and motivations with regard to types), private forest owners’ motives forest ownership compared to traditional and behaviour, management (mostly farming) owners. They are not approaches for new forest owner types, dependant on income generated on their and related policies and policy forest and typically do not have a connection instruments. to the land use sector such as farming or forestry. The literature review consists of the following three steps: collection of all literature as defined relevant, detailed description of 10 2. Methods most relevant publications, and a 1-3 pages summary according to the structure given in According to the aims of the country report the guidelines. The full list of literature which is to give a comprehensive overview of includes grey literature, i.e. literature not forest ownership issues in the country, a mix easily accessible by regular literature search of methods is applied. They include a methods (unpublished study reports, articles literature review, secondary data, expert in national languages, etc The 10 detailed interviews as well as the expert knowledge of descriptions of publications can be found in the authors. the full single country report (website: Data include quantitative data (from official http://facesmap.boku.ac.at/index.php/library2/ statistics and scientific studies) as well as cat_view/94-country-reports). The literature review contains the following questions: qualitative data (own expert knowledge, expert interviews and results from studies). A Which research frameworks and research literature review explicates the state-of- approaches are used by research? What knowledge in the countries and contributes to forms of new forest ownership types are a European scale state-of-art report. Case identified? Which specific forest management approaches exist or are discussed? Which examples are used for illustration and to gain 242 COST Action FP1201 FACESMAP Country Report GERMANY policies possibly influence ownership 3.2. New forest ownership types changes in the country and which policy instruments answer to the growing share of Private forest ownership change in Germany new forest owner types? has been shaped by large-scale, long-term socio-economic developments as well as the reunification and subsequent privatization of 3.1. Research framework and previously state-owned forest land in the research approaches country’s eastern states (Schraml & Volz, 2003). Both have resulted in new private Literature about new forest ownership types forest owner types and more heterogeneous has focused on the evolution of ownership small scale private forest ownership overall.12 change (Schraml, 2003, 2012), the Until about the 1950s, small scale private description and characterization of new forest forests were mostly owned by farmers who owners (Bittner & Härdter, 2003; Härdter, managed their forests primarily for wood 2003; Schlecht & Westermayer, 2010; production. Yet the link between agricultural Schraml, 2003), the challenges this new profession and forest ownership has to a clientele creates for counselling and outreach large extent disappeared as a result of efforts by the forestry administration, and how modernization and social change. Two causal to overcome these ( Bittner, 2003; Kraft, drivers are typically distinguished: one, the Beck, & Suda, 2003; Ziegenspeck, Härdter, & development of a service-based economy Schraml, 2004). A smaller amount of and associated changes in the agricultural literature is dedicated specifically to new sector, including overall reduction in the private forest owners resulting from restitution number of farms and agricultural and privatization efforts in East Germany employment. While agricultural land tends to (Froese & v. Oldershausen, 2010; Spinner, be sold or rented to other farmers in the 2003). A recently initiated project is looking process, forest land often remains in family into a fairly new field of research: forest ownership. As a consequence, a much of ownership by environmental/conservation today’s private forest owners are not organization and foundations (Jäkel, 2013). associated with