Vienna (OTS) – The focus of this year’s LFBÖ business press conference was on market and price developments in 2023 and the current challenges facing the industry. The balance sheet shows: Rising costs, tight markets and increasing demands are putting forestry companies under pressure. For sustainable and economically strong forest management, the agricultural and forestry companies therefore make clear demands on politics and society!
Economically, the year 2023 presented itself as a wild ups and downs for local forestry companies. While the markets started the year with positive developments, a downward trend began in April, which caused wood prices to fall significantly. For example, the annual average price for good quality spruce sawlogs fell by 9 percent compared to the previous year. After a good start, the prices for industrial wood also fell significantly again in the course of 2023. In addition, there is high inflation, which is causing problems for the entire forestry and wood industry. The real, inflation-adjusted price trend has been pointing significantly downwards for many decades. Logging also highlights the poor market development of the past year. Preliminary projections assume a total impact of around 17.3 million cubic meters, a decrease of 10 percent compared to the previous year. There are clear differences between the ranges. While demand for firewood remained high, other wood ranges declined.
In addition, local forestry is being put under pressure by climate change and the associated increase in weather extremes and calamities. In addition to forest protection measures to prevent mass proliferation of pests such as the bark beetle, domestic forestry companies also need to invest in forest conversion in order to adapt populations to climate change in the long term. In addition, in the mountainous country of Austria, the increase in prices in recent years has been clearly noticeable in the area of wood harvesting and the costs for the use of machines, energy and personnel have risen steadily. Martin Kubli, Secretary General of Land & Forest Companies Austria, summarizes the current situation for forestry companies as follows: ‘In addition to the climatic and economic burdens, there is also increasing cost pressure, which affects the entire economic activity of forestry companies – from timber harvesting to silviculture and maintaining the operational infrastructure to management. This combination is hardly manageable for our local forestry operations!”
The local forestry companies provide numerous services for the environment, economy and society, above all the provision of the renewable raw material wood, which plays a central role as a sustainable building and energy material in reducing the use of fossil resources in the long term. Forests are therefore not only severely affected by climate change, but are also part of the solution. Wood products not only bind CO2, they also help to replace fossil-based materials. At the same time, the management of the forest directly strengthens regional value creation and ensures protection against natural hazards as well as the forest’s function as a water, air and noise filter and recreational area.
Ensuring long-term sustainable forest management is therefore not only essential for forestry companies, but also for society. But this requires suitable framework conditions. While the new version of the Austrian Forestry Act enables active adaptation to climate change within the framework of forest management, more and more pitfalls are coming from Brussels instead of removing the existing hurdles. As part of the EU Green Deal, numerous regulations were passed that gradually further restrict the economic activity of forestry companies. Practical and ideology-driven approaches prevent the often urgently needed, active adaptation of forests to climate change and the expansion of the bioeconomy or make it impossible through excessive bureaucratic requirements.
In view of the great pressure from economic, climatic and social sides, measures are required. First of all, political framework conditions must be created at European level that enable rather than prevent forests from adapting to climate change and that find a balance between ecological, economic and social aspects. This can only succeed if active forest management and wood use continue to be possible. It is also necessary to maintain the forest fund, which, as a long-term support measure, helps local forestry companies create climate-fit, resilient forest stands. The various additional ecosystem services, such as CO2 storage, must also be fairly compensated for on the market. The goal of politics at this point must be to further promote the expansion of the wood-based bioeconomy as a way out of fossil raw materials. Hand in hand with this goes, among other things, the promotion of climate-protecting timber construction in new construction and renovation.
Konrad Mylius, President of Land & Forest Companies Austria, closed the press conference with a clear appeal: “As a land and forestry company, we want to create practical solutions to secure the functions of the forest in the long term. Our goal is and remains the development of ecologically and economically valuable and stable forest stands, which are preserved for the next generations! In this sense, we are always available for dialogue with politics and society, because only together can we work on an economically viable and sustainable future for Austria’s forests!”
The Land & Forest Companies Austria is the voluntary association of Austrian land managers with the aim of maintaining Austria’s forests and fields as a business basis and added social value and to create awareness of the concerns of private agricultural and forestry companies and their activities. The member companies of Land & Forest Companies Austria together manage more than a quarter of the Austrian forest and produce one in five tons of Austrian grain.
Questions & Contact:
Land&Forst forestry companies Austria
Aurelia Edlinger, MA
Press and public relations
Tel.: +43 (0)1 5330227 17
Mobil: +43 (0) 664 149 16 15
Email: edlinger@landforstbetriebe.at
www.landforstbetriebe.at