Archive:Forestry statistics

Data from September 2012. Most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.

Figure 1: Annual production of roundwood, EU-27, 1995-2011 (1)
(1 000 m³) - Source: Eurostat (for_remov)

Table 1: Wood production, 2000-2011
(1 000 m³) - Source: Eurostat (for_remov) and (for_swpan)

Figure 2: Roundwood production and gross value added of forestry and logging, 2010 (1) - Source: Eurostat (for_remov) and (for_ieeaf_cp)

Figure 3: Volume of work per area of forest available for wood supply, 2010 (1)
(annual work units per 1 000 hectares) - Source: Eurostat (for_awu) and (for_area), FAO Forest Resources Assessment

This article presents statistics on forestry and logging in the European Union (EU). The EU-27 has approximately 178 million hectares of forests and other wooded land, corresponding to 42 % of its land area. The EU-27’s forests and other wooded land cover approximately the same proportion of land area as that used for agriculture.

As a counterpart to the structural statistics on the enterprises producing wood-based products (Manufacture of wood and wood products statistics - NACE Rev. 2) this article presents the products and their trade.

It also summerises the economic indicators of forestry and logging and analyses the long-term development of the wood-based industry using all of Eurostat's data. International trade data provide evidence of what could be achieved by controlling the legality of imports of tropical wood.

Main statistical findings

Primary and secondary wood products

From 1995 to 2007, there was a relatively steady rise in the level of roundwood production in the EU-27, both for coniferous (softwood) and non-coniferous (broadleaved or hardwood) species – see Figure 1. However, the effects of the financial and economic crisis led to the level of coniferous production falling in 2008 and this pattern was confirmed with a further reduction in 2009, when non-coniferous production also fell. EU-27 production rebounded strongly in 2010 (10.1 %) and continued to rise in 2011, but at a much more modest pace (1.4 %). The combined effects of the contractions in 2008 and 2009 and the expansions in 2010 and 2011 resulted in the overall level of roundwood production in the EU-27 in 2011 reaching 428.6 million m³, around 29.7 million m³ (or 6.5 %) lower than the peak level in 2007. Some of the peaks (most recently 2000, 2005 and 2007) in roundwood production are due to forestry and logging having to cope with unplanned numbers of trees that were felled by severe storms. This latest peak in 2007 was due to exceptional windthrows by storms in many parts of Europe – notably in Germany and Sweden – after which many more trees had to be removed from forests than planned.

In 2011 roundwood production in the EU-27 increased only slightly for coniferous species, an increase of 0.2 %, whereas for non-coniferous species the increase was greater, with production 3.9 % higher in 2011 than the year before. A comparison of production levels in 2011 with those before the crisis shows the differing impact of the crisis. Roundwood production from coniferous species remained 11.2 % lower in 2011 than it was in 2007. By contrast, by 2010 production from non-coniferous species had already surpassed its 2008 production level, and by 2011 it was 5.4 % higher.

Among the EU Member States, Sweden produced the most roundwood (72.1 million m³) in 2011, followed by Germany, France and Finland (each producing between 50 million and 56 million m³) – see Table 1. Approximately one quarter of roundwood production is used as wood for fuel and three quarters is industrial roundwood that is used either for sawnwood and veneers, or for pulp and paper production.

Some 103.1 million m³ of sawnwood were produced in the EU-27 in 2011, close to two fifths (38.2 %) of which came from the two largest producing Member States, namely, Germany (21.9 %) and Sweden (16.3 %); Finland and Austria each accounted for just over 9 % of the EU-27 total. The level of sawnwood production in the EU-27 rebounded by 9.9 % in 2010 and grew by a further 3.0 % in 2011.

In 2010, wood and wood waste contributed 5% to total gross inland energy consumption in the EU-27, and it was the leading source of renewable energy, accounting for almost half of the EU27's consumption of renewables. Among the Member States, the highest shares of wood and wood waste in total gross inland energy consumption were recorded in Latvia (27%), Finland (21%) and Sweden (19%), while it was 1% or less in Cyprus, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom. In the majority of Member States, wood and wood waste was the main source of renewable energy. It accounted for more than three quarters of gross inland energy consumption from renewables in 2010 in Estonia (96%), Lithuania (88%), Finland (85%), Poland (81%), Latvia (78%) and Hungary (77%), and less than a quarter in Cyprus (13%) and Italy (24%). These data come from Eurostat's energy statistics (database table nrg_1071a). Besides fuelwood, they include the consumption from wood pellets, for which the EU was already a net importer in 2010. By 2012, the EU's production of wood pellets had increased by 133%, while its imports from third countries grew by 174%.

Forestry and logging - economic indicators and employment

There is a strong link between the volume of roundwood produced and the value added generated by forestry and logging – see Figure 2. There is also a link between the labour input (in terms of the number of annual work units (AWU)) and value added. However, it is worth noting that the number of AWU per area of exploited forest varies significantly between countries, ranging from more than ten AWU per 1 000 hectares in the Czech Republic and Romania to only around one AWU per 1 000 hectares in Greece and Finland– see Figure 3. This pattern may, at least in part, be explained by the fact that forestry and logging work in mountainous areas generally requires a higher labour input than on large tracts of flat land. In 2010 the average labour productivity in the forestry sector (calculated as value added per employee) varied substantially among Member States. The highest labour productivity is found in Finland (€101,240 per employee), whereas Bulgaria reached only €7,770 per employee. The relative increments of labour productivity in forestry between 2006 and 2010 also differ significantly across the EU. The highest average annual growth rate of labour productivity was observed in Hungary (+12.2% between 2006 and 2009) and Slovenia (+11.5%), whereas labour productivity decreased in France (-9.7%), the United Kingdom (-7.3%), Greece (-2.1% between 2006 and 2009) and Finland (-3.7%). The decrease in labour productivity was particularly large between 2009 and 2010 in several countries, dropping by 15% or more in Germany (-16%), France (-20%), Finland (-34%) and the United Kingdom (-20%).

Gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), which measures how much of the new value added is invested rather than consumed, is a key element for assessing future competitiveness. € 1.4 billion were invested in the forestry sector in 2009, accounting for 13.5% of its total Gross Value Added (GVA), of which EUR 1.17 billion (84% of the total) were invested in Sweden and Finland. The gross fixed capital formation in forestry decreased by more than 40% between 2008 and 2009. The highest relative share of GFCF in GVA of the forestry sector is found in Cyprus (67%), followed by Greece and the United Kingdom (26%).

Analysis of the long-term development of the wood-based industries

The EU's wood-based industries, also called forest-based industries, are taken to include the woodworking industries, large parts of the furniture industry, the pulp and paper manufacturing and converting industries, and the printing industry. Together, they represent about 7 % of EU manufacturing GDP and nearly 3.5 million jobs. The EU's forest-based industries thus form an important part of the its manufacturing industry and their growth can help achieve the goals of the [EU’s Industrial Policy]http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2012:0582:FIN:EN:PDF , including the target of raising the manufacturing industries’ contribution to EU GDP from 15.3% (2012) to 20 %, i.e. the “reindustrialisation” of Europe. Through their value chains, the forest-based industries extend upstream into an increasing EU forest resource and downstream into an array of industrial and consumer applications for their products. Their main raw material, wood, is a natural, renewable, re-usable and recyclable material, thus having enormous potential to contribute positively to the EU’s 2050 goals, such as to provide a high standard of living from lower levels of energy and resource consumption. However, wood is becoming increasingly sought after and expensive through growing competition, already from bio-energy and in the future from the emerging [bio-based industries]http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/innovation/policy/lead-market-initiative/biobased-products/ . The forest-based industries’ other raw materials are often imported and hence prone to price volatility. Their bought-in process energy is more expensive and both their environmental and social standards are higher than those of most global competitors. Demand for “traditional” wood-based products, such as in construction and furniture, remains depressed; consumption of some paper grades and printed paper goods is declining in the face of electronic media and is only partially compensated by increases for other formats. Three of the four sub-sectors (woodworking, furniture and printing) are dominated by SMEs and even micro enterprises with fewer than 10 employees, with relatively few large firms and only a handful of very large and multinational companies. In contrast, the pulp and paper sub-sector is relatively concentrated with medium and large firms the norm and quite a few very large and multinational firms. However, the larger firms are concentrated in pulp and paper manufacturing, whereas amongst the paper and board converting side, SMEs are more common. There are also variations across the EU Member States as to both the absolute and the relative importance of the forest-based sub-sectors nationally. Despite a very small increase in the number of firms in the pulp and paper sub-sector (see table XX), the overall trend since before the ongoing economic and financial crises is negative, with over 9 % of sectoral firms closing over eight years. Employment fell over the whole of the period 2000-2009 (See figure XXX), varying between -18.6% for wood and wood products, -19% for forestry and logging (included here for comparison), -19.7% for pulp and paper, -24% for printing and -24.3% for furniture, all far higher than the average decline in EU manufacturing of -12%, while employment for the economy as a whole increased by 6%. Figure XXX depicts a drop-off in jobs over a whole decade, but reinforced since 2008 by the downturn.

Imports of tropical timber to the EU

The EU's policy to fight illegal logging and associated trade was defined in 2003 with the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) action plan. A key element is a voluntary scheme to ensure that only legally harvested timber is imported to the EU – the bilateral FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA). FLEGT-licensed timber does not yet exist. It will ship under licences issued by the producing country once a VPA agreement is concluded and legality assurance systems are in place. The statistics published therefore show the potential volume and value of verified legal timber entering the EU from partner countries involved in VPAs. Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Ghana, Indonesia, Liberia and the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) have already signed or agreed VPAs, while Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Guyana, Honduras, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam are negotiating. The classification is the Harmonised System 2012 – all of Chapter 44 and, separately, the identified tropical items of Chapter 44. The graph shows totals and shares of imports from partner countries involved in VPAs. It also illustrates how hard the on-going recession hit these high-value imports.

Data sources and availability

Eurostat, the Timber Committee of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the Forestry Section of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) collect and collate statistics on the production and trade of wood through their Joint Forest Sector Questionnaire. Each partner collects data from a different part of the world; Eurostat is responsible for data from the EU Member States and EFTA countries.

Roundwood production is a synonym for removals; it comprises all quantities of wood removed from forests and other wooded land or other felling sites during a given period; it is reported in cubic metres (m³) underbark (in other words, excluding bark). Sawnwood production is wood that has been produced either by sawing lengthways or by a profile-chipping process and that exceeds 6 mm in thickness; it includes, for example, planks, beams, joists, boards, rafters, scantlings, laths, boxboards and lumber in the following forms – unplaned, planed, and end-jointed; it is reported in cubic metres of solid volume.

Economic and employment data for forestry and logging are collected with a separate questionnaire that was developed in collaboration with Eurostat’s national accountants; these statistics are part of integrated environmental and economic accounting for forests.

Context

Contrary to what is happening in many other parts of the world, the area covered by forests and other wooded land in the EU-27 is slowly increasing. Forest cover in the EU-27 is gradually increasing: over the past 20 years (1990 to 2010) its area has increased in total by 5.3 %, equivalent to an average increase of 0.3 % per annum. The rates of change in individual EU Member States varied substantially, from almost no change in Luxembourg, Greece, Slovakia, Finland, Romania, the Czech Republic and Belgium, to increases in the range of 10 % to 25 % in the United Kingdom, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Italy, Latvia and Hungary, while Ireland recorded a 64 % increase in its area covered by forests and other wooded land.

Ecologically, the forests of the EU belong to many different biogeographical regions and have adapted to a variety of natural conditions, ranging from bogs to steppes and from lowland to alpine forests. Socioeconomically, they vary from small family holdings to state forests or to large estates owned by companies, many as part of industrial wood supply chains; about 60 % of the EU-27’s wooded land is privately owned.

Forestry strategy

The EU’s forestry strategy dates from 1998 and established a framework for forest-related actions in support of sustainable forest management. A report on its implementation was prepared in 2005 which led to the European Commission presenting an EU forest action plan (COM(2006) 302 final) in 2006 which underpins support for sustainable forest management and the multi-functional role of forests. The plan is a framework for forest-related measures and is used to coordinate EU initiatives with the forest policies of the Member States. There are 18 key actions proposed – to be implemented jointly with the Member States. The plan focuses on four main objectives:

improving long-term competitiveness;
improving and protecting the environment;
contributing to the quality of life;
fostering coordination and communication.

In March 2010, the European Commission adopted a Green paper ‘on forest protection and information in the EU: preparing forests for climate change’ (COM(2010) 66 final) as part of a broader discussion about adapting to climate change. The paper aimed to stimulate debate concerning the way climate change modifies the terms of forest management and protection, and how EU policy should develop as a consequence.

In April 2011, a decision was taken to organise a review of the forestry strategy; an ex-post evaluation of the strategy was conducted in 2012. The review may lead to the establishment of targets and indicators to measure progress in the forestry sector. Equally, the common agricultural policy (CAP) is due to be reformed by 2013; this review may also have consequences for forestry policy in terms of changes to rural development policy. The new EU Forest Strategy sub-titled "for forests and the forest-based sector", designed to guide policy to 2030, was still under discussion in September 2013.

Forestry within rural development

Forestry, along with farming, remains crucial for land use and the management of natural resources in the EU’s rural areas, and as a basis for economic diversification in rural communities. The EU funds many different measures for rural development that directly benefit forest owners. Rural development policy is part of the EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP) which has been the main instrument for implementing forestry measures in recent years. In this context, it is estimated that spending on forest-related measures during the 2007-2013 period through the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development will amount to a value between EUR 9 000 million and EUR 10 000 million.

In October 2011, as part of a wider set of proposals for the reform of the CAP, the European Commission presented a proposal for the future support for rural development (COM(2011) 627 final/3). In line with the Europe 2020 strategy, six EU-wide priorities were outlined, three of which included specific references to the forestry sector:

fostering knowledge transfer and innovation in agriculture, forestry and rural areas;
restoring, preserving and enhancing ecosystems dependent on agriculture and forestry;
promoting resource efficiency and supporting the shift towards a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy in the agriculture, food and forestry sectors.

It is expected that this reformed support framework will be in place by January 2014.

Legally binding agreement on forests - international convention

Further Eurostat information

Publications

Forestry in the EU and the world (Statistical books)
Forestry Statistics – 2009 edition (Pocketbook)

Main tables

Forestry (t_for), see:

Forestry (t_for)

Gross value added of the forestry industry, at basic prices (tag00058)

Total roundwood production (tag00072)

Total sawnwood production (tag00073)

Total paper and paperboard production (tag00074)

Forest increment and fellings (tsdnr520)

Forest trees damaged by defoliation (tsdnr530)

Database

Forestry (for), see:

Removals, production and trade (for_rpt)

Roundwood removals and production (for_rptr)

Roundwood production and trade (for_rptt)

Production and trade in primary products (for_rptp)

Trade in secondary processed products (for_rpts)

Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting for Forests (for_ieeaf)

Economic accounts for forestry (Series end in 2005) (for_eaf)

Sustainable forest management (for_sfm)

Assets (for_sfmas)

Environmental aspects (for_sfmen)

Dedicated section

Forestry

Methodology / Metadata

Forestry [ESMS metadata file - for_esms]

Source data for tables and figures (MS Excel)

Forestry statistics: tables and figures