Austrian Federal Forests
| Austrian Federal Forests
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|---|---|
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| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1997 |
| Seat | Purkersdorf |
| management |
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| Number of employees | 1,003 (2018) |
| sales | 226.4 million euros (2018) |
| Branch | forestry |
| Website | bundesforste.at |
The Austrian Federal Forests (ÖBf) are a stock corporation owned by the Republic of Austria . They manage around 850,000 hectares of natural land for the Republic of Austria , including around 510,000 hectares of forest - around a tenth of the total national area. Nature conservation regulations apply to more than half of these areas .
history
The Federal Forests were founded in 1923 from the possessions of the monarchy ( state forest and the private forest of the expropriated Habsburgs ), and are the legal successors of the kk Forstarkars . During the time of National Socialism in Austria from 1938 to 1945 they were called Reichsforste . In 1997 they were outsourced from public administration and converted into an AG . They are still 100% owned by the Republic of Austria , represented by the respective Federal Ministry of Forestry . Since then, the company has been operating profitably and pays the Republic of Austria 50 percent of its annual profits, a fruit usufruct fee for the economic use of the state land.
Business areas
Core business of the Federal Forestry is the forestry . It is operated close to nature and according to the principle of forest sustainability. Production cycles averaging more than 120 years require generational thinking. Sawmills, the paper, board and pulp industries as well as biomass power plants are supplied . In addition to the core forest / wood business, the most important pillar is the management and development of real estate - i.e. H. the rental of land and buildings as well as tourism infrastructure, e.g. B. bridle paths , mountain bike trails and ski slopes . The third business area is services: the offer ranges from forest advice and management of private forests to natural space planning. With the fourth pillar, the renewable energy sector, Bundesforste is committed to wind and small- scale hydropower , forest biomass and photovoltaics , thereby contributing to the energy transition . The company is divided into twelve forest operations , two national park operations and one forest technology operation and has a total of 1,003 employees (full-time equivalents on an annual average, as of December 31, 2018). The general management was in Vienna in the former naval section , now the company management is in Purkersdorf , Lower Austria. The Austrian Federal Forests have a 33.3 percent stake in the Vienna-Simmering biomass power plant, the 25 percent stake in Mayr-Melnhof Holz was given up in 2014.
sustainability
The Federal Forests base their entire work on the principle of sustainability . This means that only as much raw material is taken from nature as can grow again. According to the company, economic profit is on an equal footing with the goal of preserving nature and its biodiversity. To this end, the Federal Forests, together with nature conservation organizations such as the WWF or Birdlife, run a wide variety of species protection projects, for example to save the yellow-bellied toad and black stork or to reintroduce the brown bear in Austria.
Lakes and cultural assets
The Austrian Federal Forests are the largest water management company in the country and maintain, protect and manage 74 lakes with more than one hectare of water as well as numerous small lakes for the Republic of Austria - including the lakes in the Salzkammergut and Carinthia, which are particularly important for tourism . a. Wörthersee , Wolfgangsee , Millstätter See , Hallstätter See , Attersee , Grundlsee . Most of the shore properties at these lakes are not leased, freely accessible natural landscapes.
In addition to the lakes, the properties managed by the Federal Forests also include many historical cultural assets such as B.
National parks
As forest and nature managers, the Federal Forests are involved in looking after the Donau-Auen National Park and the Kalkalpen National Park . The forest companies offer guided tours through these national park areas, which are used by around 15,000 visitors each year.
Vienna Woods Biosphere Reserve
At the beginning of 2005 the Vienna Woods were included in the worldwide network of biosphere reserves by UNESCO . In a biosphere reserve, the focus is on the development of ecologically, economically and socio-culturally sustainable forms of land use. Only in the core zones of the biosphere reserve will any economic use be stopped. As the largest landowner in the region, the Federal Forests have brought 39,000 hectares, 4,200 hectares of which are core areas, into the biosphere reserve and support the Wienerwald management in achieving and implementing the goals pursued in the biosphere reserve.
Literature scholarship WALD
Together with the magazine WALD , the Federal Forests awarded a literature scholarship several times from 2011 . The scholarship was advertised as a two-month residency scholarship in the Thurnauhütte in the Osterhorn group in Salzburg and was additionally endowed with an amount of 2000 euros.
literature
- Oliver Rathkolb , et al .: The "Reichsforste" in Austria 1938-1945 - Aryanization, restitution, forced labor and denazification. Study on behalf of the Austrian Federal Forests AG, Böhlau, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-205-78482-1 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sustainability report for the 2018 financial year - facts and figures
- ^ Judgment of proceedings at the Administrative Court from 2005, accessed on May 7, 2014
- ^ "Reichsforste" as a Nazi biotope ( memento from March 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Wiener Zeitung , March 2, 2010, accessed on November 7, 2013.
- ↑ Bundesforste took a close look at their Nazi past derstandard.at, March 2, 2010, accessed on March 7, 2011.
- ↑ [1] on parlament.gv.at accessed on November 14, 2018
- ↑ Österreichische Bundesforste: Sustainability and Annual Report for the 2018 financial year. May 2019, accessed on August 14, 2019 (German).
- ↑ Austrian Federal Forests ( Memento from May 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), Wirtschaftsblatt, June 6, 2011
- ↑ New shareholder structure at Mayr-Melnhof Holz. April 30, 2014, accessed September 24, 2018 .
- ↑ Literature scholarship FOREST. Literaturport, accessed on February 21, 2015 .