Press release No. N 050 of 4 August 2021
- 75% of the timber logged in 2020 came from damaged trees - a record high
- Proportion of trees with severe crown defoliation at a record level
WIESBADEN –The hot and dry summers in the past few years have increasingly affected the forests in Germany. Pests such as bark beetles proliferate in particular in already weakened trees, with serious consequences for forest resources. As a result, insect damage accounted for just under 43.3 million cubic metres out of the total of roughly 60.1 million cubic metres of damaged timber logged last year. The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports that this was nearly 13 times more than in 2015, when 3.3 million cubic metres of damaged timber were logged. The total amount of damaged timber logged in 2020 was almost 5 times higher than in 2015 (12.9. million cubic metres).
