site.btaForum About Missed Benefits, Results of Poor Forest Management Held in Sofia

Wood is the raw material of the future and demand for it will increase in the coming years, said Petar Dishkov of the Bulgarian Wood Users Association during a forum about the missed benefits and the results of poor forest management in Bulgaria, held here on Wednesday. 

The first socio-economic analysis of the state of the forest sector in Bulgaria was presented at the event, organized by the Association of Bulgarian Wood Users.

Data of the Executive Forest Agency (EFA) were used for the analysis, which, according to Dishkov, every year become more theoretical and less accurate due to the fact that the national forest inventory, which has been set into law, has not been happening for years. "The reasons are entirely political," Dishkov believes.

The analysis is aimed at sustainability and forest management, i.e. reaching European practices. "What developed European countries do should be our goal," Dishkov said.

Wood has been identified as the raw material of the future - it is a renewable resource. All European Union (EU) policies are linked to increasing wood consumption - in furniture production, in construction, in energy production, it can be a substitute for plastic. Society will need more and more wood, and it comes from forests, Dishkov said.

According to him, the state loses between 500 million and 1 billion leva annually from inefficient use of the country's forest resources. 

In 2022, 7,644 million cubic meters of wood were logged and harvested in Bulgaria, which is far below the planned and actually possible yield.

"The ratio of 80% timber harvest to growth is becoming a best practice in Europe. In Bulgaria, last year we fell under 50% of the growth," Dishkov stressed, giving the example of Estonia, which has half the area of Bulgarian forests but produces twice as much. 

Last year was the weakest in terms of timber yield in at least two decades. In the last 12 months, just over 5,500,000 cubic metres of timber were harvested in Bulgaria, down 25% on the previous year and 34% on a five-year basis.

Associate Professor Georgi Kostov of the University of Forestry explained that the forests of Bulgaria are strongly influenced by man. About a quarter of them are artificially created. Currently, the average age of Bulgarian forests exceeds 60 years.

Labour is also in short supply. The work is hard, the terrain is difficult, there is no infrastructure and the pay is low. The problem is that people who have left the industry are not coming back, there are fewer and fewer people willing to practise this profession. 

According to Dishkov, the forestry industry in Bulgaria employs some 60,000 people, which is not much, but these are all kinds of people, including those in mountainous and semi-mountainous regions where there are not many employment opportunities.

Statistics also show that between 5,000 and 10,000 ha in Bulgaria are destroyed by fires every year. The reason for this is the accumulation of timber in forests. 

Associate Professor Georgi Kostov of the University of Forestry explained that the forests of Bulgaria are strongly influenced by man. About a quarter of them are artificially created. Currently, the average age of Bulgarian forests exceeds 60 years.

Labour is also in short supply. The work is hard, the terrain is difficult, there is no infrastructure and the pay is low. The problem is that people who have left the industry are not coming back, there are fewer and fewer people willing to practise this profession. 

According to Dishkov, the forestry industry in Bulgaria employs some 60,000 people, which is not much, but these are all kinds of people, including those in mountainous and semi-mountainous regions where there are not many employment opportunities.

Statistics also show that between 5,000 and 10,000 ha in Bulgaria are destroyed by fires every year. The reason for this is the accumulation of timber in forests.