Private Forests — the Backbone of German Forest Landscapes
Thinking of forests, immediate pictures are triggered in my mind: a beautiful landscape full of life, light creating a mystic atmosphere, a hiker finding peace, maybe even some harvesting activities.
In Germany, many of these landscapes are in private ownership and face diverse pressures today. What role does nature conservation and resource use play for their owners?
Forests are essential to human life and wellbeing. They do not only provide spaces for recreation, have a large impact on the climate, and offer valuable habitats for many, sometimes threatened species — but also deliver important resources like timber. During the last years, however, forests are increasingly vulnerable due to climate change effects such as more frequent droughts and storms.
Not only the state or large forest companies, but all kinds of forest owners have to face these challenges and come up with financially feasible ways to achieve resilient forests that ideally serve all these purposes. On a larger scale, private forest owners are demanded: Holding 48 % of the total forest area, they represent the biggest ownership group in Germany. 50 % of these private owners possess forest parcels with a size smaller than 20 ha. Studies indicate that especially here, low management intensity is found alongside high nature conservation values.
KLEIBER: Nature Conservation in Private Forests
Against this background, the research project KLEIBER was initiated. The German abbreviation KLEIBER can be translated to “small private forests: conservation through resource use” and indicates once again the different societal demands regarding forests. Within the project, we aim to analyze how private forest owners think about nature conservation and resource use. We seek to learn about their motivations, their management activities, and their challenges. These insights from social science will be combined with ecological data from their forest parcels, contributing to the development of integrative decision-making aids for nature conservation and silviculture.
Within the project, we focus on a region in Northwest Germany called Lower Saxon Hills. This region offers beautiful landscapes, partly shaped by the river Weser and characterized by a long tradition of private forest ownership: Here, a share of 43 % of the forests is owned by private forest owners.
In a first step, a survey was sent to private forest owners in this region in the summer of 2019. This was possible due to a cooporation with three local forest management associations,whose members we were allowed to contact. With 1679 usable answers, the survey had a reply rate of almost 40 %. The responses revealed some interesting characteristics of this region: For instance, forest parcels are quite fragmented here. The average size of one single forest parcel is smaller than or equal to one hectare for 43 % of all respondents. On average, forest owners in Lower Saxony own 11.2 ha in more than three different parcels. One can easily imagine that owning and managing such relatively small and fragmented forest sites is a big challenge in times of bark-beetle infestation, drought and differing societal demand — perhaps even more so due to the increasing attention by a growing number of visitors amidst the Covid-19-pandemic.
Natura 2000: Conflicts and Impacts
Moreover, our case study region currently faces a conflict regarding the implementation of the Natura-2000-network, which is highly contested. This European-wide network of protected areas aims to maintain the diverse habitats, fauna and flora while taking into account economic and social factors. It covers about 24 % of the German forest area and within Lower Saxony, and a relevant share of this network is established in privately owned forests. Private forest owners critizise the design of this conservation scheme, the limitation of their ownership rights, and the lack of practical views. Moreover they do not feel appreciated in their past efforts for nature conservation.
In our study, we are aiming to find out more about the ways in which the implementation of a Natura-2000 site on their land impacted the objectives and activities of private forest owners.
Key conclusions will be drawn on what our insights imply for future conservation action and on how to better integrate conservation and resource use.
You can be sure to find a summary of our results in a follow-up post.
Apart from the research regarding Natura 2000, we want to analyze ecological data from private forest owners, combine ecological and social data as well as conduct qualitative interviews!
Until then, I hope you find time to enjoy a stroll through a nearby forest! Next time you are there, keep an eye open to interesting structures, signs of silvicultural or other kinds of human usage — or to an especially beautiful tree.
Side note: This research is a cooperation with the Northwest German Forest Research Institute (NW-FVA) and funded by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture via the Agency for Renewable Resources based on a resolution of the german parliament (FKZ 22001218 and 22023218).
Check out our project homepage for more information (in German): https://www.nw-fva.de/index.php?id=703.
