About 28% of Europe’s forests (including the European Part of Russia) is privately owned, while the rest (72%) are in public ownership. Nevertheless, when looking at particular regions of Europe, the share of privately owned forests is undoubtedly significant. Would you like to see how the distribution of forest ownership in Europe looks like? 

Researchers from European Forest Institute (EFI) prepared, for the first time, the visualisation of the ownership distribution in Europe.

A published report in 2013 “Mapping the distribution of forest ownership in Europe” by Pamela Pulla, Andreas Schuck, Pieter Johannes Verkerk, Bruno Lasserre, Marco Marchetti and Tim Green contributes to a better knowledge of forest ownership distribution in the 47 European countries. All the maps in the report were created through a diligent data collection, analysis and visual presentation.

They demonstrated that private forests and their owners play a key role for the forest sector. See below the private forest ownership map of Europe.

On the map, we can clearly see that in Scandinavia, France, northern Italy, Portugal or Austria private forest ownership is dominant. While in the Eastern Europe (Poland, Ukraine, Russia), southern Spain, Balkan countries or Turkey there is completely opposite situation, as the public ownership prevails.

Also, in the report you can find information for selected regions, from mentioned 47 countries (if available), with its forest ownership structure.

It was found that around 28% of Europe’s forests (including the European Part of Russian Federation) is privately owned forests, while the rest (72%) are in public ownership.

Why do we need such a map?

In the report, it was pointed that a number of other applications of such map can be envisaged, including for instance, further research activities related to climate change adaptation, forest risks and management regimes of forests, accessibility and utilization of timber resources and many others.

The European Forest Institute (EFI) is an international organisation established by the European states.  With its about 120 Associate and Affiliate Member organisations, five Regional Offices and three Project Centre, it offers forest research contacts and collaboration at the European level. The headquarters of the EFI is in Joensuu, Finland.

Source: Pulla Pamela, Andreas Schuck, Pieter Johannes Verkerk, Bruno Lasserre, Marco Marchetti and Tim Green. Mapping the distribution of forest ownership in Europe. EFI Technical Report 88, 2013. 

Main photo: EFI headquarter in the background (Finland). Photo source: Rafal Chudy.
I was visiting EFI during Joensuu Forestry Networking Week 2013: How to meet the increasing demand for wood in Europe?