Forest damage in Germany increases rapidly due to extreme weather events

BERLIN, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Thirty-two million cubic meters of wood infested by insects were felled in Germany in 2019, almost three times as much as in the previous year, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced on Monday.

In recent years, German forests had suffered from drought and heat waves as "more and more damaged trees" had been cut down, Destatis noted, warning that pests such as bark beetles would spread in already weakened trees could "become a threat to forest resources."

"The forest is in stress mode throughout Germany and there is a close interplay between the most diverse extreme events such as drought and fires which usually reinforce each other," Uwe Sayer, managing director of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Germany, said on Monday.

Out of the 68 million cubic meters of wood harvested in Germany in 2019, around 46 million cubic meters had been damaged and FSC believes there had been a "shortfall in the design of forest ecosystem stability in Germany in the past."

Sayer sees a conflict of interest. Profit-oriented forest management with tree species that did not have sufficient stability often prevented tree species with higher ecological adaptability but lower profitability.

Drought, storms and pest infestation had caused "massive damage" to Germany's forests, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture said two weeks ago. The drought years 2018 and 2019 had left extensive damage on 245,000 hectares which would have to be reforested.

The ministry announced that the German government and federal states had earmarked around 800 million euros (939 million U.S. dollars) until 2023 in order to help private and municipal forest owners to cope with the damage while developing climate-stable mixed forests.

Resilient, near-natural forests and their sustainable management protected the climate, secured biodiversity and were the "most important recreational area for Germans," the ministry said.