Forest treasures in Central and Eastern Europe

under the hammer

How forests which survived hammer and sickle are under

threat to be sacrificed for profit

Forest treasure of CEE

• 300.000ha of natural forests in the Carpathians (nearly half of it is covered by forests)

• In Slovakia, Bulgaria and Bosnia over 50% of the forests are in somewhat natural conditions

• In Slovakia, Poland, Macedonia and Bulgaria the share of pristine forest is about 1%

• Poland: in 1996 there were 1,46 million ha of environmentally important forests in Poland (IUCN Poland 1996)

• Romania: in 1985 there was 127 000 ha of forests without accessibility (> 5km) and 824 000 ha with relatively bad accessibility (2-5km) from road

Forests undisturbed by man in Europe

•Russia 260.768.700 •Sweden 4.531.300•Finland 1.202.000 •Georgia 550.000•Bulgaria 256.000

• Norway 250.000• Romania 233.200• Turkey 188.000• Poland 144.000 • Albania 84.800

Forests “undisturbed” by man in Europe [ha] by FAO/ MCPFE:

Threatened species in CEE

• 481 endemic plant species• Last region in Europe to support viable

populations of brown bear (8000), wolf (4000, 45% of Europe’s population) and lynx (3000)

More than 300 species of birds:• 61% of the European populations Black Storks • 62% the of Lesser-spotted Eagles • 42% of the Middle-spotted Woodpeckers breed

in the Accession countries

Forest threats in CEE

• Forest privatisation

• Illegal logging

• Not enough strictly protected areas and no proper enforcement of the existing ones

• Bad forestry – clear cutting, monocultures

• Building of infrastructure

• International consortia entering the market in order to “turn the forest into value”

Consortia entering the CEE market

• Foria-ÖBF

• ÖBF

• Schweighofer sawmill

• Kaindl Holzindustrie

• Weltbank

• Private owners

Foria-ÖBF

• Founded by Austrian state forestry agency ÖBF & Finnish Forestry agency Metsähallitus in summer 2002 .

• Planning to take over leadership in Central and Eastern European forest-management & timber marketing until 2007.

• Goal: sales of 45 Mill. Euros and 1 Mill. solid cubic meter of timber until then.

ÖBF

• Active in CEE with consulting department.

• Reformation of forestry agencies in Albania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary (and PNG)

Schweighofer

• Opens sawmill in Sebes (Siebenbürgen) in mid 2003

• Investing 60 Mio Euros

• 300 employees

• 95% of sawn timber exported to US, Japan, Middle East

• Financed by Austrian Creditanstalt

• Cooperation with Foria-ÖBF planned

Kaindl

• One of the leading providers of tiber materials in Europe

• Particle board producer• 16 enterprises in 9 countries with 8.500

employees• Subsidiary Kaindl flooring is market leader

in timber floorings, 23% market share• 750 employees• 310 Mio. Euros turnover

WorldbankRomania – Forest Development Project

• to support increased productivity of forest industries

• rehabilitating and extending the forest road network (best practice guideline)

• establish a forest management information & monitoring system

• to ensure sustainable management of private forest lands

• economic and environmental goals in one project