Styrian Forest Resilience Check – FoReSt

Dealing with the increasing volumes of damaged timber in Austria caused by climate change (2018: 50%, 2019: 62%, 2020: 54% of total felling) requires efficient, resilient and sustainable management to ensure the rapid processing and removal of damaged timber from the forest. This helps to prevent critical damage caused by the spread of bark beetles or losses in timber quality, and the associated price reductions, slumps in revenue and additional costs. In the field of damaged timber management, there is a lack of mature strategies for dealing with large-scale calamities that are coordinated between the various actors in the timber supply chain. For this reason, the FoReSt project is conducting specific analyses of experiences from past major forest damage events as well as the current state of damaged timber management in the province of Styria, Based on the results, coping strategies are being developed in participatory workshops with forestry and timber industry stakeholders, and concrete measures are being devised to improve the joint management of future damage events, with their planned implementation supported by the ‘Damaged Timber Styria’ roadmap to be developed.This involves assessing the logistical potential and developing management strategies for dealing with damaged timber, with a view to improving the long-term resilience of the damaged timber supply chain, as well as a package of measures to improve logistical processes in the main affected areas in the medium term. The individual work packages are being carried out with the close involvement of forestry practitioners, timber harvesting and freight companies (lorries and rail), and administrative bodies.