Carinthian foresters call for long-term climate strategies

Carinthian forest owners are calling for long-term strategies to protect forests and the timber industry from climate change, ORF reported. Forest management and timber use were the focus of Saturday’s state forest farmers’ conference at the timber trade fair in Klagenfurt.

Forests generate 2.9 billion euros in direct and indirect gross value added in Carinthia. The forestry and timber sector employs about 24,000 people in the province, around one and a half times as many as the hospitality industry.

Walter Hochsteiner, a forest owner and head of the forestry committee at the Chamber of Agriculture, said climate change and the roughly 100-year rotation period of common tree species made the future development of forests difficult to predict. Tree species currently considered suitable for the future could fail as the climate changes rapidly, he warned.

Introduced pests linked to international goods transport and ash dieback are also creating major challenges, Hochsteiner said. The forestry sector therefore faces many unknown variables.

Mixed forests seen as the future

Norway spruce remains the main commercial tree species in forestry, but future forests will need to look different, said Johannes Kircher of the provincial forestry directorate. In lower and middle elevations, he said, greater emphasis should be placed on managing mixed forests.

The transition is difficult for forest owners who are accustomed to spruce and larch. Mixed-forest management requires different care, but is supported through forestry subsidies. Climate reports and forecasts can help estimate developments at specific locations through 2080 and 2100, Kircher said.

Forest owners have already begun changing their approach, but implementation can take decades. Each twelfth euro generated in Carinthia comes from the timber industry.

Wood seen as a tool for climate neutrality

Forestry director Elisabeth Schaschl said 255 million solid cubic metres of wood had been harvested across Austria since 1990, while more than one billion cubic metres had grown back. Over the same period, more than 900 million tonnes of carbon dioxide had been removed, she said, including carbon stored in wood and in processed wood products.

Only one third of Austria’s energy system currently comes from renewable sources, while two thirds still relies on fossil fuels, said Martin Wette of the Austrian Chamber of Agriculture’s energy department. Replacing that fossil energy with renewable sources, including bioenergy, was necessary both for energy security and to meet climate targets, he said.

Austria aims to become climate-neutral by 2040 with help from the timber industry. Wette said this was mathematically possible.