Status: 08/16/2022 10:08 a.m
The fear of a gas shortage in winter and drastically rising wood prices are apparently causing more and more theft of wood in German forests. The forest owners’ association sounds the alarm.
The forest owners’ association AGDW in Berlin complains of damage amounting to several million euros annually due to the theft of wood. Reasons are the impending gas crisis and a significant shortage of firewood in Germany.
“The higher the price of wood, the greater the theft rate,” AGDW told the news agency dpa. According to association spokesman Jürgen Gaulke, large companies are now expecting losses of around 0.5 to two percent of the annual harvest. This means millions in damage for the forest owners.
Hardly any firewood left on the market
The association sees the main cause in the drastically increased prices for firewood and the simultaneous shortage of the raw material in Germany. The price for a solid meter of firewood has increased from 60 to 70 euros to 100 to 200 euros within a few months. More and more often, consumers have no access to firewood at all because the warehouses have been emptied.
Even firewood or wood briquettes in hardware stores are sold out in many places. Where the fuel is still available, prices have doubled or tripled. “If firewood is available at all, because many dealers only supply their regular customers,” says Gaulke.
With GPS technology against thieves
Ahead of a winter when there may be a gas shortage, consumers “rather stock up” to avoid sitting in a cold apartment. The demand for wood-burning stoves has also risen sharply in recent months.
From the point of view of the association, the number of wood thefts is therefore also increasing. In some cases, professional thieves are apparently even at work, stealing up to 15 cubic meters of wood using special vehicles. Some of the forest owners now want to counter the trend with modern technology. For this purpose, GPS transmitters and transponders are attached to the wood so that stolen wood can be located even after the theft.