Private forest

It can refer to woodland owned by a natural or juridical person or a partnership.It is the forest which is planted, nurtured or conserved in any private land.

The share of private forest area is ranging from 13% in Bulgaria up to 98% in Portugal.

However, in Catalonia, law defines as minimum forest unit, 25 ha Germany has around 11.4 million hectares of woodland of which 48.0 percent is in private ownership.

The DBU Naturerbe, with around 60,000 ha, is the largest private forest owner in Germany.

[13][14] Of the churches in Germany, around 150,000 ha of forest is divided between 6,500 legal owners (parishes, abbeys, foundations, bishoprics).

Even though the churches are mostly corporate bodies, the woodlands they own are considered to be private forests.

[17] In Slovakia over 45.1% (2.221 million ha) of total area is covered by forests.

In 2017, the state owned 769 thousand ha of forest land, or 39.5% of its total area.

About 80% of the forest land consists of Scots pine, Norway spruce and birch.

The standing volume was estimated to 3.5 billion m3 in 2018, and the annual increment exceeds yearly gross felling, and has done so since the 1950s.

Although the number of owners living over 90 km from their holding has increased, the median distance of 2.2 km indicates that half of the owners still live within walking distance from their holding.