Forest cooperative
Under forest cooperatives , the summary should be read by traditional forest use rights.
Situation in Germany
Forest cooperatives under old law
These are so-called forest cooperatives of old law, e.g. B. the Haubergs-, Mark- and Niederwaldgenossenschaften such. B. the High Mark . They are corporations, cooperatives or communities that already existed under old law (= before the entry into force of the BGB on January 1, 1900), which cannot be incorporated into civil or corporate forms of our time. You are either the owner of the forest yourself or you are the owner of old forest use rights, which continue to apply in accordance with Articles 83 and 164 of the Introductory Act to the BGB under previous state law. Most of them are not legal persons , but regulate their external affairs as a majority of persons. Internally, however, they often have - in contrast to the BGB - a corporate constitution that guarantees the permanent existence of the members. With regard to ownership of the forest, there are all conceivable forms: joint ownership, joint ownership and ownership by fractions. What is decisive for these types of forest cooperatives is the traditional internal relationship between their members. Of course, such cooperatives can no longer be re-established today - after the BGB came into force.
According to the federal German framework law, forest cooperatives are private forests , unless the state regulations provide otherwise. Section 3 (2) of the Federal Forest Act (BWaldG) defines corporate forests as follows: Forest in the sole ownership of the municipalities, municipal associations, special purpose associations and other public corporations. The forest is excluded from religious communities and their institutions, as well as from real associations, Hauberggenossenschaften, market cooperatives, farmsteads and similar communities (community forests), as far as it is not regarded as a corporate forest according to state law.
The legal character of today's forest cooperatives in Germany is largely regulated by state law. In most federal states, the regulations are based on the provisions of the Prussian law on protective forests and forest cooperatives of July 6, 1875. The following legal bases exist in the federal states:
- In Hesse , forest cooperatives are regulated in Section 46 of the Hessian Forest Act.
- With the law on community forests in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia - Community Forest Act - of April 8, 1975, the legal relationships of the forest cooperatives in North Rhine-Westphalia were newly regulated.
- In Thuringia , the forest cooperatives are regulated in the eighth part of the law for the conservation, protection and management of the forest and the promotion of forestry (Thuringian Forest Act - ThürWaldG -).
Registered forest cooperatives
Forest cooperatives founded from 1900 onwards are registered cooperatives under the Cooperative Society Act . The latter are legal persons and have to add the legal addition eG after their name in legal transactions.
This form of cooperative often arose from the replacement of those traditional forest, forest or Gert rights by the municipalities, especially in Bavaria. The municipalities thus achieved the extinction of the rights of use and were able to free their properties from these burdens. In return, however, they had to compensate those entitled, either in cash or in land. The forest plots mostly spent for this purpose were then brought into a cooperative, which now manages them and continues to provide wood to their comrades.
In addition, ideas for the establishment of a cooperative sometimes arise when it comes to selling state and communal forests to individual owners of capital. Efforts to found such were u. a. Employed in Radevormwald by a citizens' initiative. The first such new forest cooperative was founded in 2014 in Remscheid. In addition, the establishment of forest cooperatives was discussed in connection with the NRW civil forest concept .
The forest law regulations for the establishment of forest cooperatives can be found in the forest laws of the federal states.
Situation in Austria
In Austria , the so-called community forests (e.g. from agricultural communities ) take up almost 10 percent of the total forest area with a total of 351,471 hectares according to the land register evaluations of 2013.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Introduction to Forest Law, by Kurt Mantel. Melsungen 1968.
- ^ Hessian Forest Act
- ↑ Community Forest Act NRW ( Memento of the original dated February 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 103 kB)
- ↑ Thuringian Forest Act
- ↑ Bergische Morgenpost of November 18, 2009
- ^ First forest cooperative founded for citizens , Remscheider Generalanzeiger, December 16, 2014
- ↑ Ministry for a livable Austria (ed.): Sustainable forest management in Austria - data collection on Austrian forests , status: February 2015, table 1.1 online version ( memento of the original from November 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically used and not yet tested. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved November 19, 2015.
