Independent Forest Report for Austria

As an important raw material source, forests protect us from natural dangers, while simultaneously storing carbon and serving as a recreation area and workplace.

In the framework of the Austrian Forest Strategy 2020, E.C.O. prepared the texts and graphics for the WWF's Natural Forest Report. In the report we illustrated the development of postglacial development of vegetation in Austria as well as the history of human interference and its significance for the development of the current forest ecosystems. One of the core elements of the report is the presentation of those indicators and characteristic values that are suitable from a forestry and ecological point of view to describe forest stands in a qualitative and quantitative manner. Moreover, they are immediately applied in the analysis of the current forest condition. Of central importance is the chapter on the manifold services forest ecosystems perform. In addition, we describe how forests are coping with the climate crisis, which economic aspects of forest use and forest conservation and which steps are necessary for a forest in the future - especially on the part of forest policy - are to be taken to heart. Read Forest Report (in German only): https://www.wwf.at/files/downloads/2020-wwf_waldbericht_final.pdf