The forest emergency in Europe is at the beginning of a hard battle campaign against Bark Beetle and other parasites attacking our forests.

Global warming is accelerating the reproduction of Bark Beetle from normal twice a year to three times a year, causing infestations in all central Europe. And this problem is evolving rapidly.

On 16 September, on occasion of the Plenary Session of the European Parliament Miguel Arias Cañete, Commissioner for Energy and Climate Action has echoed the concerns of the European Sawmill Industry.  In his speech Commissioner Cañete stated “The current situation on the European roundwood market is beyond comparison: driven by damaged wood from droughts, heat, windstorms and floods, and bark beetle infestation, the market is flooded in terms of volume, and market prices are dropping. The situation is far from optimal from the point of view of climate change mitigation through harvested wood products.”

The words of the Commissioner well reflect the present situation.Many countries are suffering as a result of the climate change effects on forests, in particular in Central Europe. During the first four months of 2019, in Germany logs export volumes were up 61% as compared to the same period of 2018. While the bark beetle hit hard in 2019, 2018 was already a record-high year in terms of forests pests as well as storm related damages.

In Austria, in 2018 for the first time in history, more than 50% of the felling volume was damaged wood, and in 2019 it seems that damaged wood is at least as high as in 2018. The situation is also extremely challenging in France and Belgium (in 2018, 500.000 m³ of spruce were attacked by bark beetle. Same volumes are expected in September 2019,  between 800.000 and 1.000.000  m³ ). Parts of Scandinavia, such as south Sweden, have also seen a sharp increase in beetle-damaged wood.
The European Sawmill Organisation -EOS- calls for a multi-stakeholder approach and a Europe-wide effort to tackle this problem. Holistic market-oriented solutions should be elaborated on the basis of environmental science-based arguments. We need solutions in order to make European forests resilient to climate change disturbances and able to secure the provision of sustainable timber for the European wood processing industries . While in the short-term there will be an abundance of raw materials in the market, it would not be reckless to assume that in mediumterm the sawmill industry will face a shortage of fresh and good quality raw-materials.

Last but not least, it is of primary importance to emphasized that in spite the presence of bark beetles in forests European sawnwood products are safe too use in all applications, including in construction, packaging and furniture. They undergo treatments that make sure that any pest found in raw materials is killed. Likewise, sawmill industry by-products, such as chips and sawdust can be safely used. For this reason and considering that a high quantity of roundwood needs to be processed, EOS calls for the European public sector to further encourage the use of wood products particularly in green public procurement. Increasing the share of wood-based products used in construction is not only beneficial for the environment – as wood products store CO2 throughout their lifecycle – but also supports the forest-based industry at this challenging time.”