Saving Austria's forests with 350 million euros

Austria is launching a research project to save its forests.

In Austria, 350 million euros have been made available to rescue the country’s forests. Federal Minister Elisabeth Köstinger and Josef Moosbrugger, President of the Chamber of Agriculture, presented the Waldfonds (forest fund) in January. It is endowed with 350 million euros and comprises 10 measures that strengthen both forest management and the entire value chain.

“Austria’s forests supply timber, secure jobs in the regions, protect against natural hazards, provide habitats for plants and animals and are a place of recreation for us humans. However, our forest farmers have been struggling with growing challenges for years. Extreme weather, climate change and pests such as the bark beetle are taking their toll on our forests. Falling timber prices and the coronavirus crisis have made the difficult situation even worse. That is why, in the federal government, we have created with the new forest fund the largest rescue and future package there has ever been for our forests,” says Agriculture Minister Köstinger.

The measures range from support for reforestation and compensation for bark beetle damage to setting up timber storage sites and forest protection measures. The aim is to ease the tense situation in the forests, increase regional value creation and make the forests fit for the future.

200 million euros are available for six of the ten measures.

As a first step, the funds have been available since 1 February 2021.

“Our forests need help! With the forest fund we are providing money for the forests of the future. With every tree planted we make an important contribution to climate protection. Intact forests are the best natural air conditioning there is,” the Agriculture Minister stresses.

“With the forest fund we are able to respond to two central challenges of our time: the climate crisis and the coronavirus crisis. These investments in the future make a decisive difference both to our severely damaged forestry sector and economy as a whole and to the environment. The money is therefore put to the best possible use and will pay off in many ways in the long term – a real win-win situation for life throughout Austria,” emphasises Josef Moosbrugger, President of the Austrian Chamber of Agriculture. “I would expressly like to thank Agriculture Minister Elisabeth Köstinger for taking our sector’s desperate calls for help seriously. Together with us, she put together this package for the future in a highly constructive way and pushed it through. In such difficult times, when public funds are hotly contested, this cannot be taken for granted. Rather, it is a clear and encouraging signal to our forest farmers and to the jobs upstream and downstream,” Moosbrugger underlines.

Funding from the forest fund has been available since 1 February.

For Climate Protection Minister Leonore Gewessler, preserving our biodiversity is also a particular focus.

“With the forest fund we are making sure that our forests become fit for the climate. I am particularly pleased about the comprehensive package for biodiversity in the forest. From the requirement to follow the natural forest community as closely as possible when reforesting, to funding for natural forest reserves, we are protecting our nature with numerous measures. This allows us to increase biodiversity in the forest, support research and raise awareness of species and nature conservation in the forest,” says Gewessler.

More than 60 million euros are also available for the timber construction offensive.

This supports both practice-oriented research into timber construction and the actual use of wood for building. While the production of most building materials emits immense amounts of CO2, wooden buildings are a carbon sink.

“When we build with wood, the stored CO2 is bound for the long term. That is an important contribution to reducing the CO2 burden on our atmosphere. With the forest fund we will therefore also promote the construction of timber buildings. This is an important step towards making the buildings sector climate-neutral too, and I am very pleased that we have been able to create funding opportunities for this in the forest fund,” explains Gewessler.

The forest – a multi-talent

• Almost half of Austria’s land area is covered by forest!
• Austria’s forests are developing positively – the forest area grows by 3,400 hectares a year. That corresponds to 4,762 football pitches.
• Every second, one cubic metre of wood grows, binding 250 kg of carbon, or around 1,000 kg of CO2.
• The domestic forest is an important economic factor. Around 172,000 businesses and companies along the forest–wood–paper value chain secure jobs for around 300,000 people in Austria.
• Around 62 per cent of Austria’s total timber harvest in 2019 was damaged wood.
• 4.3 million solid cubic metres – more than a third of the timber harvest – were damaged by the bark beetle.

More information on the specific funding options (German): http://www.waldfonds.at

In the forest, it is planned to carry out the Vedic practices AGNIHOTRA and TRYAMBAKAM daily, with the participation of TERVICA and scientific monitoring.

Help for the forest – bark beetle experiences of the forest farmer W. M. from Austria

On 5 September 2020 I came across Agnihotra for the first time. I attended a talk by a member of the Homa-Hof Heiligenberg in Raabs an der Thaya. During the live Agnihotra demonstration I noticed what enormous power this ritual holds and what deep inner calm I feel when I am present at this fire ritual. That same evening I also met Eva R., who wants to tackle the bark beetle drama in our area for the good of the forest, with the help of the highly energetic Agnihotra fire. That impressed me greatly.

As I myself own a proud 13 hectares of forest and the bark beetle issue had already become a problem – a real problem – I immediately agreed to make my forest available for the Agnihotra fire technique. A day later, Bernd came to my forest with Eva and a few interested people, to a plot of about 4.2 hectares. There we chose the king tree and a guardian tree. A Vyahruti Homa was performed, which initiated a change in the bark beetle situation and a new beginning. Everything felt very good to me, and I was curious to see how things would develop. Eva performed Agnihotra on site as often as possible. When it was performed elsewhere, the focus was on the damaged forest. The elemental beings were also addressed and asked for help. The OM Tryambakam Yagna was performed twice and Agnihotra ash was scattered four times.

Now, exactly two months later, I went back to this forest with Eva, very consciously. I was curious whether a positive development had set in. And indeed: from a forestry point of view it is fascinating to note that within a radius of about 1 km no further bark beetle infestation can be seen, nor has there been any recently. The trees feel more vital and look “healthier” than two months ago, even though this is a pure spruce stand, which is particularly at risk. Two spruce trees were also blown down by the wind … unfortunately I did not get round to removing them from the forest. Normally that is a hotspot for the bark beetle, and fallen trees like these lead to a real bark beetle explosion – but in this case there is nothing at all. That really surprised me. It has also rained much more than usual recently, which also benefits the forest greatly.

In summary, I can say that the forest has developed very positively in this short period, in a way I could not have imagined a year ago; so we can report a positive trend.