A timber truck fully loaded with logs drives over a very simple wooden bridge in a forest.

Institute of

WF Forestry

Ongoing Projects · Sustainability Assessment

Bio-economy Monitoring

Food security, climate protection, biodiversity as well as supply of bio materials and renewable energy pose significantly challenges to our economy. But even the question of the actual state of bio-economy in Germany could not satisfactorily be answered. Not only the knowledge about the paths of bio-based material is lacking but also detailed data does often not exist. Thus, an assessment of the bio based economy is not possible.

Bioeconomy Monitoring II

What has biomass use in Germany developed? How important are import commodities for German bioeconomy and what effects do they have in the countries of origin? We will address these and further questions in the project.

Carbon Leak

In the Carbon Leak project, we are analyzing the effects of German and European climate protection measures on global agricultural and timber markets and of the potential leakage effects on emissions. The increased requirements for the emission balance of the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) and agriculture sectors adopted in the German Climate Protection Act and related EU legislation may lead to a significant reduction in timber harvesting as well as agricultural production in Germany and Europe. Such changes suggest significant market effects, such as decreasing production ...

Charter for Wood 2.0

The Charter for Wood 2.0 aims to increase the contribution of sustainable forestry and wood use to climate change mitigation. It contributes to the implementation of the Federal Government’s Climate Action Plan 2050. Strengthening value creation in the forestry & wood cluster and conserving finite resources through sustainable and efficient wood use are further key objectives.

Decent work in the forest sector

Decent work is the foundation for viable contributions of the forest sector to inclusive economic growth and social sustainability.

Effectiveness and efficiency analysis of national and international forest certification systems

How effective and how efficient do forest certification schemes protect against deforestation and forest degradation?

Federal Government assesses forest certification schemes for public procurement

Forest certification is an important step for the implementation of sustainable forest management. Forest certification is voluntary and market driven. Various competing international systems exist. With respect to public procurement this requires periodic assessments. The federal government sets a good example: All public institutions are obliged to purchase only timper products from verified sustainable sources.

Forest-Employment

The quality and consistency of employment data across countries are crucial for measuring the socioeconomic benefits of forests. This project aims to provide updated data on the contribution of the forest-based sector to global employment and recommendations to ensure reliable and internationally comparable employment statistics.

Green Jobs in the Forest Sector

What defines a Green Job in the European Forest Sector? How do Green Jobs look like and how can they support the just transition to a more sustainable forest sector and economy? To answer these questions, the project “Green Jobs in the European forest sector” aims to analyse available information about forest-based green jobs, to identify challenges and opportunities for supporting green jobs and the just transition to a more sustainable forest sector and economy.

Completed Projects · Sustainability Assessment

Bioeconomy-Monitoring in Uruguay

How important is bioeconomy in Uruguay and what kind of sustainability effects are associated with it? To answer these questions, we develop a system that monitors bio-based material flows and its related sustainability effects as well as the sectoral significance of the bioeconomy and its sustainability effects on a national scale.

Cooperative business models for woodfuel

Although dendromass is not suited for solid quality furniture, it is still gaining in demand In particular wood industry and to a significant extent the producers of bioenergy are the major consumers.

How environmental friendly is timber production in Germany?

We assess the environmental burdens of forest operations in order to analyze and quantify potential ecological benefits of wood products compared to their alternative non-wood products.

Lignocellulose-Biorefinery II

More than 85 % of raw materials in the chemical industry are derived from fossil sources (stand 2011). About 90 % of all raw materials used for chemical applications are currently imported. Hence, it is desirable from an economical as well as from a societal point of view, to extend the raw material base with local and renewable resources. Lignocellulosic plants, such as straw, miscanthus and woody biomass are in particular applicable in this case. We conduct research on how sustainability is effected, when base materials for the chemical industry are produced from beech wood and compare the ...

Unintended consequences of implementing a sustainability strategy

Careers in Sustainability Excellence (CASTLE) educates sustainability experts for the bio-based economy. The project is a Marie Curie Integrated Network with 14 young researchers working in related projects across Europe.

Water Use within Life Cycle Assessment

Supplying the world sufficiently with water in high quality is one of the most imporant environmental topics these days. Is it possible to assess the impacts of water use? If yes, how?

WEHAM-Scenarios

How to use the forest area in Germany? How much space should be protected and how much wood should be produced? How do we prepare forests for climate change? We need decision support to solve problems of conflicting forest utilization.

WEHAM-Scenarios - Work Package 4: Sustainability assessment

How will the implementation of the various requirements of German society affect the future forest cultivation and timber use? How sustainable are the forest management scenarios developed together with the stakeholders in Work package 1 and 2? These questions were examined in Work package 4: “Sustainability assessment” of the joint research project WEHAM-Scenarios.

What is the added value of fuelwood consumption?

Driven by the Renewable Energies Act as well as increasing prizes for fossil fuels fuelwood consumption did increase considerably in the last decade in Germany . By now, competition for wood between forest industries and fuelwood users is severe. Which option is more economical? What is the value added of fuelwood consumption in Germany?

WoodForWork - Wood-based Employment

How important is the forest sector for income and employment in different countries of the world? This is what we want to find out in this research project.

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