Rosewood

The flow of data between the partners of forestry and the timber industry is an unpredictable obstacle in terms of time in the supply chain. Still today, lists of wood and factory dimension protocols are passed along analogically on paper. Regional individual solutions for digital data transfer exist, but they are expensive compared to the sold number of products.
ELDAT is publicly available and updated by the Kuratorium für Waldarbeit und Forsttechnik e.V. since 2002.

Digitalization process with optimizing interfaces still in process.

ELDAT is the first national standard, which enables a consistent communication between all involved partners of the process chain. It enables the transfer of single timber data (formerly the list of wood) as well as the transmission of process defining information such as e.g. contract, billing or delivery data in shortest time and therefore is an important part in the supply-chain-management.

On the state and cluster level there have been established different portals for private forest owners, to show them the opportunity to contact the local foresters and inform themselves about forest management and all questions to do with forest ownership.
The portals are an approach to reach out to forest owners without professional expertise and any relations to forestry by offering them an easily accessible channel for information.

It is important not just to show the addresses of your personal available state forester and forest owner association but also to include entrepreneurs and other actors in the forest business.

Forest owner portals are an innovative and effective way especially to address the “new forest owners”.

A “machinery ring” describes an association where farmers support each other by offering machinery and services in forestry and agriculture:
The “machinery ring” is a community that exchanges experiences, shares machines and supports in emergency situations.
it’s essentially based on community and innovation
The „machinery ring“ is a Germany-wide organisation; membership is completed in the members’ local machinery ring (place of living)
The focus is on a member organization and the sustainable benefits for the associated companies

The “machinery ring” successfully offer their members:
reduced production costs attractive employment and additional income opportunities
enhanced working conditions (for example outsourcing of work chains, support of employees during peak periods)
allowances in emergency situations (damages, etc.)
expert consultancy, wide range of services, mediation contracts

The “machinery rings” are the first consulting partners in management and field work organization
The local organizations provide individual personnel, services and technology
The cost-effective shared use of modern technology / machinery in forestry and agriculture, employment models for members and organization of value chains especially in rural areas are the main building blocks
In Germany there are about 240 local machinery ring organizations that represent about 192.000 agricultural farms
Roof organization is the “Bundesverband der Maschinenringe e.V.“ with it’s subsidiary „Maschinenring Deutschland GmbH“

The information sheets of the LWF summarize the latest research findings for practical application. They are of interest for foresters, forest workers, forest owners and interested private persons.

The information sheets of the LWF contributes to a better forest culture and professionalization even in small scale forest ownership structure and is printed and published also in Internet.

Approach in the selected example:
Description of the different options to form a processing chain for the supply of wood chips (harvesting, logging/stocking, chopping, transport), with regard to the kind and the amount of wood available
Instruction for measuring the amount of wood chips based on the estimation of the stock volume
Sustainability: Recommendation to use branches and tree tops for wood chips only dependent of the location à should not be used in locations poor of nutrients. The withdrawal of nutrients can be decreased by debranching and removal of the tree tops à nutrients stay in the ecosystem and growth is maintained. Additionally, the quality of the wood chips increases and revenues can be higher

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

Many forestry associations offer so called “forest management contracts”. Together with the forester of the regarding forestry association forest owners can regularly plan the necessary silvicultural actions.

This is an interesting approach especially for old forest owners who can´t any more take care. Furthermore it is an opportunity also for the new forest owner generation with high percentage living far away from the estate.

The state forester is looking after all actions after the forest owner’s decisions and after the accounting (income and expenses). Costs for a forestry management contract depend on the services agreed on in the contract.

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

In the program “rural area” 2007 until 2013 followiing weaknesses were found in NRW:
High share of small scale private forests
Associations to reduce structural disadvantages often too small
Unfavorable age class proportion of the forests due to historical reasons
Logging potential is not being used
Therefore following measures were implemented:
Increase of the value added in forestry products (ELER-Code 123-B)
Forestal road construction (ELER-Code 125-B)
Natura 2000 – Forest (ELER-Code 224)
Forest restructuring (ELER-Code 227)
Soil liming (ELER-Code 227)
Environmental protection (ELER-Code 227)

The funding in general was suitable to support reaching the goals. But due to the small amount of funding the effect of the projects on the state NRW was limited. So future funding should concentrate more on finding solutions for problems caused by the small-scale structure of the forests and on finding more sales opportunities.

ELER-Code 123-B:
Number of jobs could be increased, but the goals could not be reached (40 more jobs, goal: 100 more jobs)
Gross value added was higher than before the project
ELER-Code 125-B:
Amount of harvested wood could be increased from 356.000 m³ to 536.000 m³ due to road construction and costs for logging & logging distance could be decreased
ELER-Code 227:
Long-term improvement of the biodiversity in the forests due to restructuring can be expected
Slightly positive effect on biodiversity through soil liming can be expected (increases stability of the forests)
ELER-Code 224:
As part of the Natura 2000 funding, the following requirements had to be fulfilled: Support of habitat-typical rejuvenescence