Europe has more than 117 million hectares of forest, but the
sustainable utilisation especially in privately owned woods falls short of its
potential. The ever-increasing demand for wood for material and energy
applications is becoming more and more difficult to meet. In response, the EU
project SIMWOOD (Sustainable Innovative Mobilisation of Wood) was recently
launched with the aim of promoting a more efficient use of the available supply
of wood and bolster Europe's forestry and wood industry. The EU is funding the
project with about EUR 6 million over a four-year period. The Coordinator is
Roland Schreiber from Bayerische Landesanstalt für Wald und Forstwirtschaft.