Forest growth exceeded harvesting levels in 23 EU countries with available data in 2023.
A simple way to gauge whether wood production is sustainable is to compare the amount of wood harvested or otherwise removed in a year with the forest’s natural growth, known as the net annual increment, Eurostat reported on Friday.
In 2023, the largest surplus of growth over removals was recorded in Romania at 39.9 million cubic metres, followed by Sweden at 26.4 million and Poland at 26.3 million.
Estonia was the only country where removals were higher than growth, with 11.6 million cubic metres removed compared with a net annual increment of 9.1 million.
That left Estonia with a net decrease of 2.5 million cubic metres of available timber in 2023.
How Eurostat defines “sustainable harvesting”
The EU statistical office said its approach focuses on intentionally harvested wood and excludes unexpected losses such as catastrophic events, to better reflect the forestry sector’s environmental footprint.
Eurostat published the figures ahead of the International Day of Forests on 20 March.
