On behalf of the Austrian Ministry for Agriculture, Regions and Tourism, our colleague Stefanie Linser elaborated the Report on Austrian Forest Indicators which was published on 22 December 2020. As part of the Austrian Forest Program and the Austrian Forest Strategy 2020+, a set of 65 indicators for sustainable forest management in Austria was broadly agreed by all forest-related stakeholders including short- and medium-term targets for each indicator. The achievement of each of the 65 indicators is assessed by one or more targets based on a detailed description of the current situation and data available in long timelines. This is unique so far. The publication is written in German but with an English summary and an Annex with English indicator names and related targets.

In brief:

• Austria is a country rich in forests with 4.02 million hectares of forested area, which cover 47.9 percent of the national territory. Since the start of the national Forest Inventory in 1961 the forested area has continuously increased.
• The share of protective forests that protect the soil, the quality and quantity of water or other functions of the forest ecosystem amounts to 21.5 % of the total forest area, and the share of forests with these management objectives is rising.
• The area of protected forests whose management objective is biodiversity or landscape diversity accounts for 878,398 hectares or 22.1% of Austria’s total forest area. About 63,000 hectares of forest are natural, which means they do not show any human impact. The network of natural forest reserves covers 66 % of all forest communities and is to be expanded from resources of the Forest Fund.
• About a quarter of the forest ecosystems show biotic and abiotic damage.
• With 1.17 billion cubic metres over bark in commercial forests, the growing stock has reached another record level in Austria. It increased from 285 cubic metres over bark per hectare in the inventory period of 1992/96 to most recently 351 cubic metres over bark per hectare. This shows that the amounts of wood harvested are smaller than the increment.
• The carbon stock in the forest biomass has risen by 66 Mt C since 1990 and presently amounts to 401 Mt C.
• The most important legal basis for sustainable forest management is the Austrian Forest Act of 1975 (last amended in 2016). The Austrian Forest Programme, which was drawn up in a participative manner as part of the Forest Dialogue, and the Forest Strategy 2020+ provide the forest political framework. The Law on the Monitoring of Timber Trade (“Holzhandelsüberwachungsgesetz”), which entered into force in August 2013, is an important contribution to the fight against illegal logging.
• The preparation of forest management plans is not obligatory, but such plans are available for 50 % of the forested area.
• 3.13 million hectares of forest are actively managed according to the PEFC standards, slightly less than 600 hectares according to the FSC standards.