Eastern Europe tree felling policy.

[cessna]

As so much firewood is coming in to the uk from Eastern European countries , I am interested to know whether the logs coming in to the uk (or wherever they are exported to) are created from forest thinnings or clear cut forestry.

Have any of you visited Eastern Europe and seen for yourself how they manage woodland/forests.

Interesting looking at GOOGLE earth maps/pics to see the extense of woodland /forests in Eastern Europe ,although a few years out of date !!!

[born2trot]

I certainly know there is a bit of an outrage about the clearfellings in the Carpathian mountains, Ukraine.

[richy_B]

I don't know anything about their management but the influx of eastern European firewood in the last few years must be driving this. Particularly the fact that their market seems to very low priced, aimed at distributors in western Europe. Low unit price, high volume will drive deforestation if not properly managed and enforced. Their will be good land managers and their will be sh*ts, the same as anywhere.

 

I read something similar about deforestation because of charcoal production in northern Africa and south America.

 

At the same time I guess we can't be too critical as it is our domestic markets that is driving this.

[Logsnstuff]

there was an article couple of years ago about the illegal felling and the timber was being sent to the UK with the relevant FSC accreditation which made a nonsense of all their rules.

[Coximus]

Alot of it is coming from state owned forests, and I know speaking to a local merchant who buys it (hes polish himself) that in the 1990's after socialism fell flat, the Govts auctioned off permits to fell forest blocks, most of these ran for 20-25 years, they were sold to raise cash quickly as their economies tanked, Initially alot of forests were simply scoured for good hardwood logs to sell to france (Oak) and Scandinavia (deal/Pine), the low wages (in the 90's 1/8th or less than UK at the time) meaning they were competitive.

The Birch and aspen stands were just left as they had no value - but they're on the block permits and licences, so are now being hoovered up before the licences expire> Not necessarily true of the whole situation, but certainly of large areas.

 

As birch coppices well, they get away on the EU sustainability rules, as their is rapid and quick grow back, which in some areas is already 5-10cm dia and getting harvested as chip for BIOmass plants.

 

As these areas start to produce mostly smallwood for chip, the volumes will probably drop back abit in the medium term. And apparently getting licences for new areas is competitive so some people are pulling out.

Like any artificial market rush.