Regional/sub-national

As described in §15 BWaldG forestry associations are “renowned forest management cooperatives, forest management federations and renowned forestry unions”. Also, forest owner associations and forest farmer associations are rated among forestry associations.
Associations are supposed to improve the management in the affiliated forest areas and in the estates selected for afforestation. Especially they should help to overcome the disadvantages of small areas, unfortunate area shapes of ownership fragmentation, conflict situations, insufficient forest development or other lacks of structure (§16 BWaldG).

 Due to the changing structure in forest ownership, a growing demand for wood and the effects of climate change, forestry associations have to face new challenges.
More personnel with expertise is needed to implement the growing amount of forestry measures needed due to climate change
Forestry association need to improve their competitiveness on the market and their ability to establish a working network for timber harvest and marketing of the affiliated forests. Especially, this is important to support forest owners with very small forests, whose transaction costs are usually too high to make harvesting profitable

A forestry association needs to enable a considerable improvement in the management of the affiliated estates regarding size, location and connection (§18 subsection 1 BWaldG).
Forest owner assocations in Bavaria are leading in whole Germany in terms of high educated staff, organization, IT-systems and efficiency.

Training and education center for private and corporate forests and all people interested in the forest
The WBS supports forestry associations in creating their structures and fulfilling their tasks
The WBS is the responsible authority, cross-company training facility and examination location for the apprenticeable profession forester
The WBS is an event location for institutions and federations. Falconers and hunters take their examination there
The WBS is certified for DIN EN ISO 9001 and 14001 as well as OHSAS 18001
All working processes and the content of the education is continuously being improved

An institution like the Bayerische Waldbauernschule is an essential asset to establish an innovative and learning culture in the area of forest owners and association. Furthermore it contributes to more safe and efficient forest operations for the whole area.

The environmental impact of all measures and the security standards suggested in the trainings are constantly being improved and environmentally friendly measures are conveyed to the attendees

The funding of forestry was further developed with following funding schemes FORSTZUSR 2015, FORSTWEGR 2016 and WALDFÖPR 2018

Forestry advisors from the Office for Food, Agriculture and Forests can help if questions occur and offer support for the application process. The Bavarian forest funding process is highly developed.

FORSTZUSR 2015: Guideline for funding project related actions of forestry associations:
Initiatives of the associations to improve professional information, trainings and the mobilization of their members or rather the recruiting of new members were included as new measurements in the funding catalogue
The funding of reliable approaches such as the comprehensive forest management contracts is being intensified
FORSTWEGR 2016: Guideline for funding for actions to access forests:
It is easier and cheaper to transport wood on forest roads which are capable of carrying heavy duty vehicles
Forest paths make it easier to supervise forests more regularly and to fight calamities such as forest fires or parasite infestations
WALDFÖPR 2018: Guideline for funding for financial contributions: Comprehensive Catalogue about silviculture and actions which can be funded with government funds

The ownership of the forests is shared by the stockholders as an historically rooted legal framework. Due to different backgrounds in formation, there is no relation between the size of community forests and the number of stockholders.
The four cornerstones of the community forest law from 1975 are:
All stockholders are part of a public corporation, the forest cooperative
It is forbidden so dissolve forest areas which are part of a community forest
Consistent management policies for all kinds of community forests
The possibility to merge forest cooperatives or create new ones

For the creation of the community forest law in 1975, an advisory board with participants from all existing forms of community forests was formed. Because if this involvement the framework is well accepted and has proved its practicability. Since the implementation of the community forest law until 2002 only two new forest cooperatives have been founded. It is not easy to convince private forest owners to make this step

There are several advantages of community forests compared to small private forests:  
a chairman can decide for all members how to manage the forest, especially after calamities such as a storm
merger of forest cooperatives and newly founded cooperatives improve the forest ownership structure

Goal of the project was to improve the flow of information and of material in the timber supply process of the forestry associations (WBVs) Traunstein, Rosenheim and Holzkirchen. The following objectives were defined: Creation of an integrative model to increase the competitiveness of all stakeholders in the value-added chain (forest owner, WBVs, contractors, haulers, consumers of wood) Evaluation of different timber harvest chains in the frame of an actual state analysis based on important logistic indicators (i.a. lead times, accounting periods) Recording of organizational structures and of the technical equipment of the WBVs for the identification of the business process flow The study showed that especially in small private forests a clear process coordination is needed to fulfill customer demands while at the same time reducing idle time à consequent use of modern information and communication technology is very essential. In the implementation phase, changes were measured in two models: regional thinning events and the integration model. In the regional thinning events the following changes were recognized: The goal of a timber stack size of 50 m³ obs could not be reached, in fact, it even decreased to a size below the size of the actual state analysis The share of highly mechanized harvesting methods in total logging increased from 28 % to 37 % (goal: 35 %) The lead time could be reduced from 49 to 38 days (goal: 35 days) The accounting time (end of transport until final billing) could be reduced from 39 to 25 days (goal: 30 days) due to the installation of 4 EDP-inferfaces with customers (goal: 5 interfaces)

The basic idea is the processing of natural and financial data for typical forest stands and selected forest treatment alternatives after previous simulation calculations. Thereby, the question initially was limited to the depiction of the alternatives “thinning” or “without thinning”.

This prototype can be complemented with additional indicators; other areas and forest treatment strategies and therefore more data should be added and furthermore more risk integration has to be done

The sorted single tree data then were condensed to coefficients via MS Access queries. The coefficients contain information about the arising amounts of wood of the simulated treatments or rather the timber stock of the remaining stands – sorted into sorts of wood and simulation period. After feeding the data to the consultation support system, a connection to current prices for timber and timber harvesting costs was established. Based on the data from the second National Forest Inventory, the stratification of the area of the Bavarian “Tertiäres Hügelland” and the compilation of simulation stocks was carried out. Using the forest growth simulator Silva 2.2, the simulation stocks were updated once without treatment and once updated according to a thinning scheme. In the next step, the results of the simulation runs (single tree data for the remaining and the outgoing stock) were sorted according to regional sorting criteria using the sorting program BDat 2.0.

The thematic focus is on the sustainable design of the entire value chain in the field of (tropical) forest and (tropical) wood. A project in Germany is a digital forest monitoring. The main idea is the development of an app that collects decentralized data in the forest and consolidates them on a platform. Based on this information, the app shall automatically offer information and recommend actions. The app enables forest owners to collect data even if they do not possess subject-specific knowledge. This tool facilitates the cultivation of forest and helps to make it more efficient. Furthermore, due to the easy application, more wood can be mobilized.

Accomplishment of several projects

Providing forest service for sustainable forest management. Members are mainly private and municipal forest enterprises. The main goals are :
The commercial business objective is to optimize the revenues of forest owners by overcoming structural disadvantages through the association.
The FVS eG wants to preserve and promote regional forestry structures. This is why FVG eG mainly uses local companies to provide the offered services.
Close and trusting cooperation with customers in the sawmill and wood industry

One of the biggest forest association in Germany

· The cooperative aims to support private forest owners and to provide a reliable source of wood to the industry. Three main goals were highlighted: Common sale of wood adapted to the industry’s needs Support of forest cultivation Increase efficiency for joint selling at fair market value Many advantages because of the positive effects due to cooperation Many advantages because of the positive effects due to cooperation

RegioHOLZ connects players of the wood and furniture industry targeting the entire value chain. The goal is to create synergies through exchange and cooperation. Furthermore, the network organizes dialogue forums and other events. The team offers expert knowledge and contacts for the entire forestry and wood industry.  The cluster initiative involves around 20 companies from the wood value chain in the region.

Personal contact and trust is the key to improve regional networks successfully.

Regular meetings, events, workshops, joint trade fair appearances, networking, information and knowledge transfer, initiation of cooperation’s and collaborative projects, initiatives in education and training