The timber footprint of the German bioeconomy

More than ever before, global forests are expected to provide solutions to the increasingly common problems associated with human overexploitation of the planet. Forests are expected to function as carbon sinks, provide materials and food, serve as habitats for a significant portion of global terrestrial biodiversity, and be accessible to humans as recreational areas. Given these challenges, it is necessary to monitor global wood use and forest potential in order to derive clear sustainability limits and to plan measures to increase use efficiency. This dissertation follows a systematic approach to contribute to the possible management of this issue. The focus is on analysing the quantities of wood consumed by Germany over time and the related pressures at domestic and international levels, particularly with regard to the balance between sustaining wood supply and biodiversity. The initial step involves the development of the "timber footprint" indicator as an independent key indicator in the catalogue of indicators to monitor the German bioeconomy. This indicator tracks the final consumption of roundwood equivalents of all processing stages within Germany. Subsequently, a multi-regional input-output analysis is conducted to calculate the magnitude, countries of origin or regions, and temporal changes associated with a "business-as-usual” development. Moreover, alternative scenarios representing “weak” and “strong” sustainability practices are explored. To assess the sustainability of global roundwood consumption, additional spatial data, official reports, and specific trade publications are integrated to establish a benchmark for sustainable roundwood consumption. Finally, the material-flow perspective is extended to illustrate the influence of German roundwood consumption on potential species loss, both domestically and internationally. This is achieved by utilizing and expanding the countryside-species-area-relationship model, which integrates spatially detailed data on land cover, forest utilization levels, and species-area relationships.