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Paper short abstract:

German forestry is praised for being among the most sustainable, both historically and at present. We investigate whether the narrative that forestry is inherently sustainable is valid and how we can respond to the current situation, which is marked by recurring fires and collapsing ecosystems.

Paper long abstract:

With the rapidly changing climate, uncertainty arises in how to take care of the highly complex ecosystems of forests. The thought of forestry being inherently sustainable with Carlowitz and others being the proclaimed heroes of the current forestry industry has led to assumptions on sustainability, complexity, and uncertainty factors which have led to detrimental policy advice on sustainable forestry practices, see EU forest strategy 2030. These include static and linear growth modeling predicting a continuous re-growth of trees as a resource, omitting parameters such as changing temperatures, photosynthetic constraints, humidity, and damage incurred through human intervention.

Taking stock of the misconceived ideas of supposedly sustainable practices that naturally grew out of history, as well as the concept of continuously re-growing trees, in a critical analysis employing complex systems thinking and economic damage calculations will help build a new model focusing on a post-growth and socio-ecological basis.

The challenges of instability and complexity in a rapidly changing climate make it more difficult to take care of our forests. However, employing historical discourse evaluation and complex system thinking to create a new dynamic socio-ecological economic approach to forestry can show new ways of looking at our forests with more respect and humility. This paper mainly focuses on the German historical and present discourse as Germany still counts as a leader within the sustainable forestry industry worldwide, and despite its failings the current and historical practices are revered in places such as the USA and Canada.