As a result of the decrease in volumes of damaged wood harvested since 2020, the total volume of wood available in Germany has declined as well © Destatis
In 2022, the logging volume totaled 78.7 million m³, which corresponds to a decrease of 10.3% according to Destatis. The share of damaged wood decreased by 13.2% year on year, from 44.7 million m³ in 2022 to 38.7 million m³ last year (–13.2%). In the record year of 2020, 60.1 million m³ of damaged wood had been harvested.
Last year, various types of damage accounted for 54.9% of the total logging volume. This was the lowest percentage since 2018. In 2023, 27.2 million m³ of insect-damaged trees were felled, which corresponds to a 2.6% increase compared to the previous year (2022: 26.6 million m³). At 70.3%, insects, such as bark beetles, were the main cause of damaged wood. Winds and storms followed in second place and caused 4.9 million m³ of damaged wood. In 2022, 12.4 million m³ of wood had been damaged by storms. Since then, that volume has been down by 60%.
In the group “spruce, fir, Douglas fir and other softwood”, logging amounted to 46.6 million m³ in 2023 (2022: 52.8 million m³; -11.7%). In 2020 and 2021, 62 million m³ of this group of tree species, which consists mainly of spruce, were harvested. This means that spruce remains the most important tree species in Germany, accounting for 66% of the logging volume. In 2022, that percentage was at 67.1% due to the higher share of beetle-damaged trees in the total harvest of damaged wood. In the years before, spruce even accounted for 74.8% (2021) and 77.3% (2020).
In 2023, 39.1 million m³ of sawlogs were harvested, i.e. 55.4% of the total logging volume. Industrial wood ranked second with 14.1 million m³ (20%) and was closely followed by wood for energy generation with a volume of 14 million m³ (19.9%). The ten-year average (2013 to 2022: 10.9 million m³ of wood for energy generation) was therefore exceeded by 28.5%.
In its forest damage report, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture estimates that 34.6 million m³ were damaged in 2023 (Smaller volume of damage wood expected in 2024). The difference of 4.1 million m³ can be explained by the advanced processing of damaged wood from previous years. “It can be observed that stands of dead, standing trees from previous years have been removed, thereby reducing the volume of dead wood in the forests while increasing the volume of harvested wood. Furthermore, both reports are based on surveys either among the responsible ministries of the federal states, where there are some uncertainties, especially with regard to the other types of ownership, i.e. private and communal forests, or among wood processing companies, which may not always be able to provide accurate figures when it comes to the share of damaged wood,” Prof. Dr. Andreas Bolte, Head of the Thünen Institute for Forest Ecosystems in Eberswalde/DE, told the Holzkurier.
