UNECE United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization Economic Commission for Europe of the United Nations GENEVA TIMBER AND FOREST STUDY PAPER 26 PRIVATE FOREST OWNERSHIP IN EUROPE Franz Schmithüsen and Franziska Hirsch UNITED NATIONS ECE/TIM/SP/26 United Nations Economic Commission for Europe/ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations UNECE Forestry and Timber Section, Geneva, Switzerland GENEVA TIMBER AND FOREST STUDY PAPER 26 PRIVATE FOREST OWNERSHIP IN EUROPE Franz Schmithüsen and Franziska Hirsch UNITED NATIONS Geneva, 2010 Note The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Abstract More than half of Europe’s forests, not including Russia and other CIS countries, are privately owned. Private owners play a key role in sustaining forest ecosystems, enhancing rural development and supplying resources to markets. Nevertheless, a significant lack of knowledge remains on private forest ownership in Europe. A joint enquiry was conducted during 2006-2007 by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE, now Forest Europe) and the Confederation of European Forest Owners (CEPF) in an attempt to contribute to closing this knowledge gap. A questionnaire was addressed to 38 MCPFE member countries with records of private forestry. Twenty-three countries participated through submitting national reports, mostly for the year 2005: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. This study paper presents the main findings from the national country reports and draws conclusions on the state of private forestry in Europe in terms of ownership distribution, holding structure, socio-economic findings and trends, with regard to restitution/privatization, changes of ownership patterns and association of private forest owners. Keywords Forest ownership; private forest sector; wood resources; sustainable forest management; data base, empirical enquiry. ECE/TIM/SP/26 UNITED NATIONS PUBLICATION Sales No. E. 09.XX.X.XX ISBN XXX-XX-X-XXXXX-X ISSN 1020 2269 Private Forest Ownership in Europe __________________________________________________________ iii Preface UNECE, together with FAO, through its integrated programme of work on timber and forestry, works to strengthen the forest sector and its contribution to sustainable development. This is also done through data collection and analysis, which contributes to better knowledge of the forest sector within the UNECE region. This study sheds light on private forestlands in Europe, which are of crucial importance in the region. Forest owners play a key role in sustaining forest ecosystems and enhancing rural development while also providing an economic and industrial resource of primary importance in the UNECE region. Nevertheless, a significant lack of knowledge on forest ownership in Europe remains. A joint enquiry by UNECE/FAO, the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE) and the Confederation of European Forest Owners (CEPF) contributed to closing this knowledge gap. This study presents the main findings from the national reports and draws conclusions on the state of private forest ownership in Europe, in terms of ownership distribution, structure of holdings, socioeconomic findings and overall trends, with regard to restitution/privatization, changes of ownership patterns and associations of private forest owners. The publication informs policy makers about the socioeconomic realities linked to private forest ownership, including the objectives and motivations of private forest owners. Important and changing trends, such as forest land fragmentation, ownership transfer from public to private, owner demographics and socioeconomic situation, and many other changes, are identified throughout the publication. Monitoring changes in this area is particularly important in view of the increasing need to reach out to private forest owners who control such a significant portion of Europe’s forests. This has become increasingly important in view of the bioenergy policies which are reshaping the forest sector and require the mobilization of additional resources, in particular from the often under-utilized private forests. The identification by this report of best practices/examples contributes to informing Governments and policy makers of possible courses of action. With this publication, UNECE, with FAO and its other partners, continues to contribute to sustainable forest management in the region by providing relevant and objective data and analysis. Jan Kubis Executive Secretary UN Economic Commission for Europe iv __________________________________________________________ Private Forest Ownership in Europe Acknowledgements The secretariat wishes to expresses its appreciation to the authors of this study paper, Prof. Dr. Franz Schmithüsen, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, and Franziska Hirsch, responsible for forest policies and institutions at the UNECE/FAO Forestry and Timber Section. While UNECE/FAO took the lead in conducting the enquiry and the establishment of a dataset on private forest ownership in Europe, both authors worked together in analysing the data gathered and their findings provide the basis for this study. The secretariat wishes to thank Alexander Korotkov and Matthias Wilnhammer for the preparation and initial conduct of the private forest ownership study. Helena Guarin and Richard Slaby provided invaluable support in the validation of the data and the preparation of the private forest ownership database, available on the UNECE/FAO website (http://www.unece.org/trade/timber/fra/PFO.htm). Matthias Wilnhammer is owed special thanks for the production of the graphics in this paper, and for the production of the initial data tables. The authors wish to thank Kit Prins, former Chief, UNECE/FAO Forestry and Timber Section, Virginia Cram-Martos, Director, UNECE Trade and Timber Division, as well as Atilla Lengyel and Morton Thoroe, Confederation of European Private Forest Owners (CEPF) for their review and excellent comments which helped improve the paper. They also thank Matthew Fonseca for his work on the editing and layout. The secretariat also wishes to thank the national country correspondents for the submission of completed national reports, often completed in cooperation with counterparts in the country and in correspondence with the secretariat. Without the dedication of the national correspondents, this study would not have been possible. The secretariat would also like to state its appreciation for the contribution of its partners in the preparation of the questionnaire on private forest ownership in Europe. Valuable comments on the draft enquiry were provided by CEPF, the European Landowner’s Organization, the Fédération européenne des communes forestières (FECOF), European Landowners’ Organisation (ELO), the European Forest Institute (EFI) and the Joint UNECE/FAO Working Party on Forest Economics and Statistics, which reviewed the draft enquiry during its twenty-eighth session and endorsed its distribution. Special thanks for review and the provision of valuable suggestions which led to improvements of the paper is owed to Simon Gillam (UK), Florian Borlea (Romania) and Florian Steierer (University of Hamburg and UNECE/FAO). Private Forest Ownership in Europe ___________________________________________________________v C O N T E N T S Page Preface ...................................................................................................................................................iii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................. iv 1. CONTEXT AND PROJECT DEVELOPMENT............................................................ 1 1.1 Context ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Project development .........................................................................................................1 1.3 Participation by countries ................................................................................................. 2 1.4 Data availability................................................................................................................ 4 1.5 Database and results ......................................................................................................... 4 2. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS .............................................................................................. 5 2.1 Ownership categories by area and management Status................................................ 5 2.2 Size classes and ownership categories of private forests............................................ 10 2.3 Growing stock, increment, annual fellings and certified area..................................... 19 2.4 Economic indicators of forest production................................................................