WOOD IS THE BUILDING MATERIAL OF THE FUTURE AND ALSO THE MOST SUSTAINABLE ONE About 300 years ago, the term sustainability was coined by Hans Carl von Carlowitz in his “Silvicultura oeconomica”. This economic management concept that was originally developed exclusively for forestry is put into practice today more than ever and in politics and the economy it by now stands for the model of a future-oriented use of resources worldwide. This is also reflected in the official data of the EU. Accordingly, the forested area in the EU has increased by 2% in 15 years, which means an absolute growth of rounded 4 million hectares of forested area. The same applies to the forestry and use of timber from the forests at a national level. In Austria, currently nearly half of the country’s entire territory is forest. Since 1961, an area of 300,000 hectares has been added and by now, 0.5 hectares of forest per resident is reached. Of this, 82% is in private and 18% in public ownership. As continuously more timber regrows than is harvested, the Austrian forest, differently than is the case in the clearing of tropical forests, can perpetually spread more. Moreover, Austrian forests are the home to 3.4 billion trees and 65 different types of trees with a total reservoir of 1.1 billion metres of existing forest. Of the 30.4 million solid cubic metres that regrow each year in the Austrian forests, 25.9 million solid cubic metres are extracted to fully satisfy the principle of sustainable forestry. Finnland 75% Finnland 77% Österreich 48% Italien 37% Deutschland 31% Ungarn 22% Schweden 68% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% Österreich 47% Slowakei 41% Tschechien 33% Italien 32% Deutschland 31% Frankreich 30% Ungarn 19% EU 19% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% EU 42% Figure: Forest area of the EU Member States, Zuschnitt 51 proholz Austria
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTQ5ODU5