site.btaBranch Chamber of Woodworking and Furniture Industry Begins ‘Save the Forests’ Campaign

On Wednesday, the Bulgarian Branch Chamber of the Woodworking and Furniture Industry (BBCWFI) held the first event of its “Save the Forests” campaign. Its purpose is to raise awareness of the need of urgent measures for the proper management of forests as well as of "changes in the sector", to use the words of BBCWFI chairman Vassil Zhivkov as he spoke at a press conference held in Sofia.

He said that forests create a renewable resource: timber. "We could use it again, repair it, recycle it, and this is all part of the circular economy," he said.

BCWFI wants to attract attention towards the importance of having a national forests inventory. "We want to have more data on what resources there are in Bulgarian forests," said Zhivkov. He said that 60 years ago the Bulgarian forests had about 250 million cubic meters of wood and by 2020 it increased to about 720 million cubic meters. The increase amounts to about 13,5 million cubic meters per year, said Zhivkov.

Zhivkov was adamant that woodworking and furniture businesses are against the illegal logging. "We want the forest to be maintained properly and to give us the resources we need", he added.

According to BCWFI, some 55,000 people work for the furniture industry in Bulgaria. This industry generates around 3% of the GDP and exports 80% of its output.

The deputy minister of agriculture Miroslav Marinov said that Bulgaria has a total of 4,270,000 hectares of woodland, which is about 38,5% of the national territory. "Control over the forests and woodland in Bulgaria is based on the principles of sustainable development and aims to balance all functions of these areas: environmental, economic and social," said Marinov.

According to the Executive Director of the Executive Forest Agency, Stoyan Toshev, the total amount of woodland in Bulgaria has been increasing since 1960 with the increase speeding up since 2022. The dominant forest species are beech, oak and white pine. "The total wood reserve increased steadily between 1960 and 2020," underlined Toshev.

According to Georgi Kostov, head of the Forestry Department of Sofia's University of Forestry, the increase has been insignificant since 2010 because of the aging of forests.

Kostov added that pine forests – which amount to about 30% of all forests, are continuing to decrease. Currently, there are 600,000 hectares left, compared to 1 million hectares  at their peak.

According to Kostov climate change puts goals in forestry management that are impossible to achieve.

He also pointed out that Bulgaria is a leading country in the Natura 2000 Europe-wide network of protected areas, with 57% of its woodland included in the network.