“Currently, the amount of carbon stored in the living biomass of forests is the roughly same as ten years ago. Up until 2017, the amount of carbon stored had increased by 52 million tonnes. After that, however, the living biomass released 42 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into dead wood and wood products,” Dr. Thomas Riedel, head of the National Forest Inventory working group at the Thünen Institute of Forest Ecosystems in Eberswalde, explains. Due to the massive loss of living biomass since 2017, the forest has gone from being a carbon sink to a carbon source.
The forested area has increased. At the moment, there are 11.5 million ha of forests in Germany, which means that one third of the land area is covered by forests. Mixed forests have seen an increase in their share of the forested area by 3% to 79%. Coniferous forests are often monocultures. A new generation of trees is already growing on around 3 million ha of forests. 91% of this growth is due to natural regeneration. This is an increase of 6 percentage points compared to the 2012 National Forest Inventory. Pine, spruce, beech and oak are the dominating tree species in 71% of the forests. Spruce has lost around 460,000 ha in area compared to the 2012 National Forest Inventory. It can still be found on 2.3 million ha or 21% of the forested area. Growing on 2.4 million ha, pine has now become the most widespread tree species, but it is also losing ground due to climate change: Growing areas have decreased by 41,000 ha since 2012. The two common hardwood species beech and oak have increased by more than 1% each to 16.6% and 11.5%, respectively.
The growth rate was around 9.4 m³ per hectare and year, an annual total of 101.5 million m³. This corresponds to a 16% decrease compared to the 2012 National Forest Inventory. In 2020 alone, a total of 60.1 million m³ of damaged wood were felled unplanned throughout Germany, the biggest volume since records began in 1990. The share of damaged wood in total logging was almost 75%.
On the occasion of the fourth National Forest Inventory (BWI IV), the German Sawmill and Timber Industry Association (DeSH) emphasizes the need to continue to actively promote the creation of climate-resistant forests in the coming years. “The results of the National Forest Inventory are no surprise to anyone who has walked through our forests with their eyes open in recent years,” DeSH President Dr. Stephan Lang says. He is convinced that the creation of climate-stable forests can only be achieved by actively managing forests and by changing the composition of tree species.
