Sachsenforst to focus on less stringent forest standards in future

Bureaucracy slows down sustainability - Sachsenforst defends itself

Sachsenforst defended the move. FSC certification was launched in 2020 as a pilot project on around a third of the state forest area, the state-owned company announced. Although the standard had been met in all sub-operations, an evaluation had shown that "a few positive aspects of FSC certification were offset by considerable bureaucratic and operational effort". In addition, restrictions in the German FSC standard would have prevented "the continuation of extraordinarily proven silvicultural methods" for the conversion of spruce stands into site-appropriate mixed oak forests.

Despite the withdrawal, Sachsenforst refers to its own extensive nature conservation measures, such as forest conversion, deadwood and biotope tree management, moor and stream renaturation and species protection for rare large birds. "As in the past, Sachsenforst will continue to fulfill its statutory role model function in the future and implement extensive measures to protect nature and species in the state forest," it said.

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