Private forest

A private forest (also private woodland or private wood) is a forest that is not owned by municipal authorities (such as a corporate forest), church authorities or the state (e.g. a state forest or national forest). It can refer to woodland owned by a natural or juridical person or a partnership.

Categories

In forestry terms, private forest may be divided into various sub-categories. For example, in Germany private forest is categorised by size as follows:

  • Smallest private forest (Kleinstprivatwald): below 5 hectares
  • Small private forest (Kleinprivatwald): 5 - 200 hectares
  • Medium private forest (Mittlerer Privatwald): 200 - 1,000 hectares
  • Large private forest (Großprivatwald): over 1,000 hectares which only represents about 6 percent of the forest area of the old (West German) federal states. In the former East Germany the Evangelical churches, by contrast, still own over 30,000 hectares of private forest and an important private forestry authority with its own uniform and badges.[1]

Emergence

Private forests arise for a variety of reasons. In Europe:

  • Large private forest estates arose predominantly because mediatised territorial lordships,(e. g. those of princely families[2]) although stripped of their sovereignty, were allowed to keep almost all of their forest estates.
    For example, the forest estate of the House of Thurn and Taxis, the largest forest in Germany owned by a private person with 28,000 hectares (according to a 2012 report;[3] according to their own 2010 report: after a major sale to Adolf Merckle still had 20,000 hectares).[4] In Austria, the almost equally large Mayr-Melnhof estate but success of a middle-class merchant dynasty. The Habsburg estates were forcibly acquired and turned into federal forests.
  • Middle private forests arose (and still arise) either as a result of the division of large private forests (e. g. through inheritance division or sale), but primarily through the sale of forests
    Examples here are the nine federal states of Germany: in 1945-49 in the wake of the land reforms in East Germany, large landowners were stripped of their estates in the Soviet Zone of Occupation and the land was given to refugees and former farmers in a move known as Junkerland in Bauernhand ("princes' land into farmers' hands"). After the fall of the Berlin Wall it was decided, not the give the private forests in East Germany back to their original owners, but with the help of a trust company (Treuhandgesellschaft) to transfer them to new private owners. This resulted in plots of private land between 200 and 1,000 hectares in area.
  • Small private forests are mostly areas of farm woodland. In the 19th century the hitherto common land was divided up and given to the entitled farmers. In order to ensure a sensible division of the woodland the farmers were not usually given one plot, but several plots of varying soil quality and tillering. In regions where gavelkind applied (South Germany, Austria), the sometimes very small plots were further divided, which led to a fragmentation of the forests and makes management today impossible in places.

Distribution

Europe

Germany

Germany has around 11.4 million hectares of woodland of which 48.0 percent is in private ownership. The state of North Rhine-Westphalia has the greatest proportion of private forest (66.8 %); Hesse has the lowest proportion (24.5 %).[5] In Germany there are just under 2 million private forest owners. The average size of German private woods is 3 hectares. Only 13 % of private woods are over 1,000 hectares in area; 50% of the area is made of up small private forests of up to 20 hectares in area and they account for 98% of the owners. The DBU Naturerbe, with around 60,000 ha, is the largest private forest owner in Germany.[6][7] Of the churches in Germany, around 150,000 ha of forest is divided between 6,500 legal owners (parishes, abbeys, foundations, bishoprics). Even though the churches are mostly corporate bodies, the woodlands they own are considered to be private forests.[8]

Federal statePrivate forests up to 20 ha[9]Private forests over 20 to 50 ha[9]Private forests over 50 to 100 ha[9]Private forests over 100 to 200 ha[9]Private forests over 200 to 500 ha[9]Private forests over 500 to 1,000 ha[9]Private forests over 1,000 ha[9]Private forests total[9]
Baden-Württemberg 242,232 ha 50,628 ha 28,516 ha 19,210 ha 20,611 ha 17,510 ha 114,162 ha 492,869 ha
Bavaria 950,045 ha 159,527 ha 69,758 ha 49,359 ha 61,725 ha 49,726 ha 110,839 ha 1,450,979 ha
Brandenburg + Berlin 254,678 ha 75,021 ha 35,536 ha 31,193 ha 69,493 ha 70,678 ha 102,661 ha 668,479 ha
Hamburg + Bremen 6,725 ha - 791 ha - - - - 7,516 ha
Hesse 67,983 ha 5,999 ha 9,998 ha 18,395 ha 26,793 ha 19,595 ha 69,983 ha 218,746 ha
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 64,575 ha 16,591 ha 17,286 ha 28,115 ha 32,188 ha 19,968 ha 15,200 ha 220,646 ha
Lower Saxony 314,954 ha 98,615 ha 74,322 ha 66,339 ha 67,928 ha 29,790 ha 54,875 ha 706,823 ha
North Rhine-Westphalia 239,010 ha 59,255 ha 48,916 ha 37,780 ha 62,437 ha 37,383 ha 122,885 ha 607,666 ha
Rhineland-Palatinate 154,401 ha 5,475 ha 6,968 ha 11,349 ha 17,322 ha 11,448 ha 17.322 ha 224,284 ha
Saarland 20,370 ha 783 ha 1,175 ha 783 ha 5,484 ha 783 ha - 29,380 ha
Saxony 127,371 ha 11,362 ha 10,166 ha 9,966 ha 25,913 ha 16,544 ha 29,102 ha 240,790 ha
Saxony-Anhalt 121,064 ha 27,102 ha 12,555 ha 16,740 ha 29,394 ha 32,782 ha 25,608 ha 289,257 ha
Schleswig-Holstein 39,788 ha 4,687 ha 4,986 ha 6,881 ha 8,775 ha 9,972 ha 13,961 ha 89,050 ha
Thuringia 130,193 ha 13,984 ha 12,555 ha 12,799 ha 14,534 ha 12,607 ha 27,534 ha 239,193 ha
Germany total 2,733.389 ha 529,029 ha 333,526 ha 308,910 ha 442,597 ha 328,787 ha 704,132 ha 5,485,679 ha
  • including private forest of unknown category

Liechtenstein

In Liechtenstein around 43% or 6,865 hectares of the country is wooded. Of that, 8% is in private hands.[10]

References

  1. ↑ Forstwirtschaft der östlichen evangelischen Kirchen: zwischen 1945 und 1991, Fred Ruchhöft und Kurt-Winkelmann-Stiftung, BoD – Books on Demand, 2012.
  2. ↑ Even today several princely families hold the largest private forest estates in Germany: Thurn and Taxis: 20,000 hectares, Fürstenberg: 18,000 hectares, Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen: 15,000 hectares, Hatzfeldt-Wildenburg: 15,000 hectares, Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg: 13,100 hectares, Oettingen-Wallerstein: 11,000 hectares, Waldburg-Zeil: 10,000 hectares and in Austria: Esterházy: 28,300 hectares, Liechtenstein: 24,000 hectares, Schwarzenberg: 23,280 hectares. Source: Wald-Prinz.de date 28 June 2014: Waldbesitzer: Wem gehört der Wald?
  3. ↑ Wald-Prinz.de dated 20 July 2012: Waldbesitzer: Wem gehört der Wald?
  4. ↑ Christine Mattauch on 26 December 2010 in Wirtschaftswoche: Gloria von Thurn und Taxis: "Wir sind das Land der Bedenkenträger"
  5. ↑ Ergebnisdatenbank der Dritten Bundeswaldinventur (2012). Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  6. ↑ H. Polley, P. Hennig: Waldeigentum im Spiegel der Bundeswaldinventur. In: AFZ-Der Wald. 6/2015.
  7. ↑ BMEL (publ.): Der Wald in Deutschland – Ausgewählte Ergebnisse der dritten Bundeswaldinventur. pp. 9ff. Online version (pdf; 5 MB)
  8. ↑ K. Giesen: Wem gehört der deutsche Wald? In: AFZ-Der Wald. 9/2015.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Results database of the Dritten Bundeswaldinventur (2012). Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  10. ↑ Amt für Wald, Natur und Landschaft des Fürstentums Liechtenstein: Landeswaldinventar 2012. Retrieved 22 October 2015.

Literature

  • Bundesministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft (BMEL, publ.): Der Wald in Deutschland – Ausgewählte Ergebnisse der dritten Bundeswaldinventur. Berlin, 2014. (Online version, pdf; 5 MB)
  • Hans Leibundgut: Waldbau im Privatwald. Anregungen und Hinweise zu erfolgreicher Waldpflege für den Waldbesitzer. Haupt, Bern/ Stuttgart, 1989, ISBN 3-258-04082-6.
  • Jochen Berlit: Betriebskonzept zur Bewirtschaftung eines Privatwaldes. (= Taxationspraxis: F, Forstwirtschaft. Band 14). Sachverständigen-Kuratorium für Landwirtschaft, Forstwirtschaft, Gartenbau, Landespflege, Weinbau, Binnenfischerei, Pferdehaltung. SVK-Verlag, Erndtebrück, 1996, ISBN 3-89061-106-0.
  • Ulrich Schraml, Karl-Reinhard Volz (eds.): Urbane Waldbesitzer. Studien zur Beratung und Betreuung im nichtbäuerlichen Kleinprivatwald. (= Freiburger Schriften zur Forst- und Umweltpolitik. Vol. 1). Kessel, Remagen-Oberwinter, 2003, ISBN 3-935638-27-2.
  • Karl-Reinhard Volz: Wem gehört eigentlich der Wald? In: er Bürger im Staat. 1, 2001, pp. 51ff. Der deutsche Wald. (Online-Version; pdf; 3.6 MB)
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