A private forest (also private woodland or private wood) is a forest that is not owned by municipal authorities (such as a corporate forest), church authorities or the state (e.g. a state forest or national forest). It can refer to woodland owned by a natural or juridical person or a partnership.It is the forest which is planted, nurtured or conserved in any private land. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, private forests are defined as forests owned by individuals, families, communities, private co-operatives, corporations and other business entities, religious and private educational institutions, pension or investment funds, NGOs, nature conservation associations and other private institutions. Currently, 22 percent [of the world’s forests] are privately owned. Globally, the share of publicly owned forests has decreased since 1990 and the area of forest under private ownership has increased.
Categories In forestry terms, private forest may be divided into various sub-categories. For example, in Germany private forest is categorised by size as follows:
Smallest private forest (Kleinstprivatwald): below 5 hectares Small private forest (Kleinprivatwald): 5 - 200 hectares Medium private forest (Mittlerer Privatwald): 200 - 1,000 hectares Large private forest (Großprivatwald): over 1,000 hectares which only represents about 6 percent of the forest area of the old (West German) federal states. In the former East Germany the Evangelical churches, by contrast, still own over 30,000 hectares of private forest and an important private forestry authority with its own uniform and badges.
Emergence Private forests arise for a variety of reasons. In Europe:
Large private forest estates arose predominantly because mediatised territorial lordships,(e. g. those of princely families) although stripped of their sovereignty, were allowed to keep almost all of their forest estates. For example, the forest estate of the House of Thurn and Taxis, the largest forest in Germany owned by a private person with 28,000 hectares (according to a 2012 report; according to their own 2010 report: after a major sale to Adolf Merckle still had 20,000 hectares). In Austria, the almost equally large Mayr-Melnhof estate but success of a middle-class merchant dynasty. The Habsburg estates were forcibly acquired and turned into federal forests. Middle private forests arose (and still arise) either as a result of the division of large private forests (e. g. through inheritance division or sale), but primarily through the sale of forests Examples here are the nine federal states of Germany: in 1945-49 in the wake of the land reforms in East Germany, large landowners were stripped of their estates in the Soviet Zone of Occupation and the land was given to refugees and former farmers in a move known as Junkerland in Bauernhand ("princes' land into farmers' hands"). After the fall of the Berlin Wall it was decided, not the give the private forests in East Germany back to their original owners, but with the help of a trust company (Treuhandgesellschaft) to transfer them to new private owners. This resulted in plots of private land between 200 and 1,000 hectares in area. Small private forests are mostly areas of farm woodland. In the 19th century the hitherto common land was divided up and given to the entitled farmers. In order to ensure a sensible division of the woodland the farmers were not usually given one plot, but several plots of varying soil quality and tillering. In regions where gavelkind applied (South Germany, Austria), the sometimes very small plots were further divided, which led to a fragmentation of the forests and makes management today impossible in places.
Distribution
Of the regions, Oceania, North and Central America and South America have the highest proportions of private forests.
Europe
European Union In the European Union (EU-28) 42% of the area is covered by forest. 60% of the European forest area is private. The share of private forest area is ranging from 13% in Bulgaria up to 98% in Portugal. Almost all European private forest is small holdings, only 1% of European private forest holdings have units over 50 ha.
Austria Forest cover approximately 40.000 km² which represent 48% of Austria. 82% of the forest area is in private ownership. Most private forest owner held small forest (under 200 hectare). Traditionally, private forest owner in Austria were predominantly farmers and forest were used to cover the personal needs of wood products and occasionally to finance larger investments. Due to societal change and the associated urbanization a new group of “remote urban forest owners” have emerged. These are owners of small-scale forest, who predominately have inherited but do not manage or actively cultivate their forest. Meanwhile one third of private forest owners belong to this new group.
Catalonia (North-East Spain) Around two thirds of total area of Catalonia (32,108 km2) is covered by forests (2,050,000 ha) and 75% of this surface are private forests. Forests ownership is scattered and with a large proportion of small properties (221,779 private states, probably more than 260,000 forest owners). The mean surface of the forest estates of Catalonia is 6.7 ha. Moreover, the 52 % of the forest estates do not exceed 1 ha, even they represent just the 2.8% of the private forest area. Just 4.75 % of the properties have more than 25 ha, although they represent the 67.25% of the global private forests and only 1.2 % of private properties are bigger than 100 ha (represent 41.5% of the total private forest area). Some forest states are also linked to agriculture activities (actually, decreasing), apart from forest activities. Ownership, traditionally, has been passed from parents to their children. Family heritage is estimated to account for 60% of the transmissions. There is no any concrete definition of small scale forest owners, the definition depends on many aspects. However, in Catalonia, law defines as minimum forest unit, 25 ha
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